Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I mentioned publicly over the weekend that I was planning to move a number of amendments to this motion when it was moved. I hate to disappoint, but the amendments I was going to move are now already part of the motion, so Labor will simply be supporting the motion that's before us. The change to having the deadline moved to 9 am Tuesday is of critical importance. It guarantees that there is time for the register to be up and for it to be public, and it is early enough for members to engage in proper scrutiny of whatever the register brings forward. I urge all members on both sides, once the form is made available, to get the information in as quickly as possible and not to use the deadline as the start time, for the very simple reason that that would take a lot of pressure off the clerks and off the Speaker's office in the work that they have to do. And it guarantees that we will get closer to a 24-hour turnaround for the information to be able to become public, which is in everybody's interests.

I also note that the concept which there's been much discussion about over the last 24 hours, about whether only a minister would be able to move a motion of referral, has now been rectified, and it now can also be moved by the Manager of Opposition Business—a job held by me. I say to the crossbench: if there are referrals of any kind that they would seek, I am certainly very happy to have those conversations if the crossbench wish something like that to take place.

I thank the government for the way this has worked its way through. There have been times in the public debate when it probably hasn't been ideal. I was bemused, after the Leader of the Opposition had called for this and the government then came forward and said they'd do it, that the Minister for Foreign Affairs said Labor had finally relented to the government's position. It is true: we were dragged to agreeing with our own position, and we thank the government for those glorious comments which were made. But the opposition, given that we have now got to a sensible position, will be supporting this motion.

See this speech in context