The Greens have stood firm on Senate voting reforms and sided with the government to reject crossbench tactics designed to delay debate on the historic overhaul.
Crossbenchers Ricky Muir, David Leyonhjelm and Glenn Lazarus tried to amend this weeks program in the Senate to bring on a vote of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (the governments bill), legalising gay marriage (the Greens bill) and giving farmers the right to refuse coal seam gas mining on their land (also the Greens bill).
But the Greens and government opposed the crossbenchers motions during a debate that lasted more than one hour, sparking outrage from the independents and Labor.
The attempt by independents to gag debate on the governments Senate voting reforms bill, which would scrap group voting tickets and prevent crossbenchers getting elected on the back of preference deals, is intended to frustrate Malcolm Turnbulls battle plan for the federal election and his chances of using the ABCC legislation as a trigger for an early double dissolution poll.
The government has agreed to Greens demands not to debate the ABCC legislation in the Senate this week in a deal between the two parties that will see precedence given to Senate voting reform.
The Senate has already rejected the draft ABCC law once and a second failure to pass the bill would allow it to be rammed through a joint sitting of parliament that would follow a double-dissolution election.
