Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to say that I support this motion because I think, more than any other piece of legislation this year, we have in front of us an incredibly complex piece of legislation and we need to follow process. Whether you agree with the legislation or disagree with the legislation, this place is supposed to be the place in Australia where we look line by line, detail by detail, and we give fair consideration to changing the laws of Australia. This goes to transparency, and it goes to process. The thing is—and I think this is to be said of both sides of this House, for generations—when we've rushed things through in this place, we've made mistakes. It doesn't matter who is in government: it happens.

This bill was introduced on the last sitting day that we had, and now today we're going to be debating this legislation. In my hand I have the explanatory memorandum, which comprises more than 250 pages. The bill is the same again. I think it's incredibly unreasonable for us not to have proper debate and proper scrutiny of an incredibly complex piece of legislation. There are unintended consequences when bills are rushed through, and that is that we make mistakes—and those mistakes are borne by the people of Australia, whether they be businesses or whether they be employees. So I would ask the government to consider this. Let us have an inquiry. An injury fleshes out the issues.

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