Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier today, the Labor opposition, through myself, circulated some sensible amendments to this bill, which I referred to in my second reading speech. Of course Labor intends to support the sensible measures within the bill. We thought they could be improved upon by the insertion of a statutory review. We are very pleased to see that, in the time between the commencement of the second reading debate and where we are today, the government themselves have adopted the Labor amendment.

It is my view that this is going to charm, enlighten and please 150 members of this place. Of course, the one exception to those who will be delighted with the fact that Labor and the coalition have reached agreement is going to be member for Mackellar, because in his address he spent the best part of 12 minutes railing against the Labor amendments—and a whole bunch of other stuff that was barely relevant to anything that was before the House this week, let alone before the House right now. The amendment is a sound one. We will be supporting it. We won't be calling for a division on the matter. We will be supporting it, as much as we would love to see the member for McKellar come in here and have to vote for the very thing that he argued against so passionately.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

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