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

but there is a procedure here that the government—and I acknowledge the interjection from the minister because it actually says it all. He said, 'Why play the game?' I say to the House, this place is not meant to simply be a game. There is a process that happens with legislation that I have to say does matter. It does matter that members have the opportunity to read legislation which is being introduced in an amended form before they are asked to vote on it. Given that the vast majority of members of this House are members of political parties, it is reasonable that those party room meetings are allowed to take place not while the House is sitting but actually during the Tuesday morning period on the timetable of this House that is deliberately set aside so that the party room meetings can happen and we can then make collective decisions on legislation.

There is only one reason why the government have decided that they want this legislation to be rushed through tonight—it's because they have decided to play the game. There is no other reason.

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