Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business (House)) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise on indulgence about the times that people have been given. The matter of public importance debate that the Leader of the House just referred to is submitted by a member of the opposition each parliamentary day. Today, that's been submitted by me. I have assured the Prime Minister that the speech I was going to deliver had every chance of bringing down the government this afternoon! But if we withdraw the MPI it means we start this debate again at 3.15 pm rather than 4.15 pm. In the spirit of making sure that we get this done, we'll defer the speech to bring down the government until we return in February and at 3.15 pm—after question time—we'll be back on this bill.

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