En Garde by Sarah Hanson-Young

Author:Sarah Hanson-Young [Hanson-Young, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780522875034
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing

Nursery rhymes

The last week of parliament at the end of the year is always chaotic. There’s a mad rush by the government to get legislation passed before everyone heads off on their summer holidays, with festive functions and last-minute negotiations frantically squeezed into the late-night sittings.

The last day is renowned for running into the early hours of the next morning, with debates over amendments. In one of these late-night sessions, in 2014, I was on my feet, debating a bill I had fought for months to stop. It was the Abbott government’s policy of Temporary Protection Visas. It was designed to stop anyone getting permanent protection, residency or citizenship if they had arrived in Australia by boat, even if they were found to be legitimate refugees. Essentially, it was creating a lifetime of limbo for thousands of asylum-seeker families.

The debate had been going for hours, the government not having secured the numbers from the Senate crossbench until well into the evening. I was trying to amend the bill to put some safeguards and review mechanisms in place to stop refugee children, in particular, being classed as ‘illegals’ for the rest of their lives. Most senators weren’t participating in the debate, so would come and go from the chamber only when the bells would ring for a vote. Being the last night of the year, there were several Christmas parties and functions on in the building.

I had been in the chamber all night. As I was on my feet, arguing my points, a fellow senator walked into the chamber and started interjecting. He was yelling various things, none of them related to the amendment being debated. ‘No one likes you, Sarah,’ he sniggered at me from a nearby chair. He was being rude and obnoxious, trying to throw me off my game. I called on the chair to intervene and the senator was called to order. ‘Senator Bernardi, you are not in your place. You should not be interjecting in any case, but it is even more disorderly to be doing it from where you are.’

I later discovered the Liberals were hosting drinks for their party members in the lounge right next to the chamber.

Over the next hour, despite being asked to stop, Senator Bernardi continued to walk in and out of the chamber, often just to heckle me. He would repeatedly distract me, and then walk out when the chair called him to order. It became increasingly apparent that he was enjoying himself.

He kept moving around the chamber, getting closer and closer to my seat, until he was sitting on the bench next to mine. As I stood, arguing my position on the current clause of the legislation, Senator Bernadi, who was still a member of the Liberal Party at the time, started singing nursery rhymes in my ear. He was leaning in, close to me, singing his songs, almost in a whisper.

He then said the name of a man he insinuated I had slept with.

Again, he did all of this while I was on my feet, speaking.

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