Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I seek the indulgence of the House to make a short statement. As I believe members of the House would be aware, there has been a second incident with an asylum seeker vessel. My purpose in rising now is to advise the House that at two o'clock I will give to the House a statement on the circumstances involving this vessel. Clearly, once again, we are involved in a search and rescue and are very concerned about the consequences.

I want to take this opportunity to advise the House that, following the making of my statement at two o'clock, the government will seek to bring on for further debate, to finality, the bill moved by Mr Rob Oakeshott to amend migration legislation and facilitate offshore processing. We would seek to make arrangements by agreement with the opposition to facilitate that occurring at two o'clock. As the House may recall, that piece of legislation has already completed its second reading, so we would be asking the House at that time to complete dealing with the bill—that is, to deliver the third reading of the bill.

I offer an assurance to the opposition that we do not seek to in any way prejudice their rights to question time so, following the House dealing with the bill, we would proceed with a question time of the normal duration and length. I would request that the Manager of Opposition Business now confer with the Leader of Government Business on the making of those arrangements.

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