Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. It just comes with the territory. They cannot stand the heat of criticism of anything that they do, but we have to cop the type of contribution made by the member for Leichhardt tonight—and we are also forced to cop an abuse of the Selection Committee process and not say anything about it.

I think it is important that we find balance. I have absolutely no problem with the opposition referring bills that it believes need scrutiny. I think it is a good process and I think it is what we should do. But bear in mind also that the House of review is another place. This is the House that instigates the bulk of legislation and, more often than not, it is subject to public consultation. People have an opportunity to have their say. We, as House of Representatives members, have constituencies where we are required to deal with those very real concerns in a way that the representatives in that other place are not. We have to be mindful of balancing our representational role and our role in review. That is the problem that we have: all this legislation is being put through to committees for inquiry and it is putting a strain on the operations of this place.

From seeing the contributions of the opposition's representatives on Selection Committee, I might add that moderation has started to occur in recent times. We do not know if this is going to be something long lasting or if it is just a pause in the approach undertaken by those opposite. I certainly hope that it will be a fundamental change in the approach used by those opposite because the type of arrangement we have confronted to date is not sustainable.

Returning to the bill, I have discussed the abuse of the Selection Committee process by sending every bill through to committee without identifying upfront any of the bill's faults or strengths or any of the issues those opposite might actually want to inquire about. The first version of the bill we are debating was considered in February 2010 by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee, which recommended it not be passed. The second version was introduced in November 2010 in this House and in February last year in the Senate. Each time, it was found that these were just rehashes of the bill and they simply did not cut the mustard. If we are going to undertake these considerations we should do so in a thorough way, but not in the way that is being proposed here today.

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