Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence, I seek to ask you a question. I rise in my capacity as Chair of the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Immigration Detention Network. The committee that was recently formed by this parliament is working quite well. It has come to my attention that at a whips meeting on the Senate side last evening the edict was given that no committee will be given permission to meet during the sitting of the Senate whilst they deliberate on the clean energy bills.

In my 21½ years in this place, I have been involved in a number of robust debates, including Mabo, Wik, the terror laws and the ASIO laws. Mr Speaker, I seek your assistance, together with that of the President of the Senate, to see if you can bring some sanity to this situation. The joint committee has hearings scheduled on 1 November and 22 November, each going in the vicinity of some six hours. To tie the debate on the clean energy bills to all of the sittings of joint committees of this parliament—those that occur at the same time as sittings of the Senate—would take a wrecking ball to the timetable. As it was, this committee has sought and received support for an extension of reporting, but I would ask you to talk to the President of the Senate and see if you can talk to the relevant officers so that some sanity prevails. We should not be punished as backbenchers doing good productive work on both sides of the House because there is a division about a particular policy.

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