Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

There are different times in this place where either side of politics or the crossbench will do something that's ostensibly viewed as a bit of a stunt to highlight an issue, and I respect that, but I've never seen one like this. The impact, if this were to be carried, would be to negate the bill. That's what would happen. A second reading amendment, if it were to be carried, would negate the bill. That would mean, at best, that we would have to try this again tomorrow for a bill which is not on the Notice Paper for tomorrow.

If leave were not granted, for example, or even if we were to have leave granted, we would then have a problem with transmission and whether or not it got to the Senate in time tomorrow for them to be able to deal with it. That puts in jeopardy the wages of everyone who works in this building, serving us. That puts in jeopardy the wages of every public servant—including, I might add, the public servants delivering the exact sorts of payments that the member might want to refer to. The public servants delivering Centrelink payments are dependent, right now, on the amendment that was just moved by the Greens failing. The stunt that has been moved is to say to the people who work for us in this building, who make this place operate, who we rely on—for the people who every individual on the payment system in Australia relies on—that for the sake of an extra bit of debating at 8.30 pm on budget night, after the press gallery have largely gone home, that you're willing to play a game of putting at risk the wages of every one of those people for the operation of government. What's in front of us right now, I've got to say, is extraordinary.

In terms of stunts there are plenty of bills where you can move a second reading amendment, but to pick supply? To actually pick people's wages, people who work for the Commonwealth, is something that—I thought the sorts of arguments as to whether supply would be jeopardised in Australia were dispensed quite some decades ago. If it were to come back, it had not occurred to me that it might be members of the Greens political party who would raise it.

Be in no doubt, it's not like I am providing something that isn't readily available. It's there in Practice. On the one occasion a second reading amendment had been agreed to it was because the people on this side of the table—neither of whom are in the parliament anymore—weren't paying attention. And for the bill it was on there was no consequence in the timing. There was no urgency.

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