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

I thank the member for Pearce for the question. We've now completed 50 sitting days, and, in that time, we have had a different approach to our predecessors, one of whom was the previous member for Pearce, who had been a Leader of the House. One of the big changes is that we debate legislation without shutting people down. Over those 50 sitting days, we've had more than 2,000 speeches on legislation. Over the same time period, that is 60 hours of additional debate on legislation compared to what happened opposite. The 60-hour figure is a convenient one, because they've got a 60-hour statistic of their own. Their statistic is they spent 60 hours in divisions voting whether the member should not be heard further or whether the question should be put. When I was asked a similar question at the end of last year, I was able to report that there had been no case when anyone had moved that the member be heard no further. It used to be a staple for leaders of the House, including the one who is now Leader of the Opposition. But last week the record got smashed. Who moved that the members not be heard further? Those over there! Even in opposition, they are still addicted to silencing debate.

This morning there weren't many people in the chamber, but we had a standing orders debate. In the standing orders debate the Manager of Opposition Business referred to the right of members—like a democratic right—to be able to move that someone else not be able to make a sound. We've all seen movies where someone gets told, 'You have the right to be silent.' According to them, you have the right to silence everybody else—that's their approach. We have had these debates where the Leader of the Opposition, when he was Leader of the House, wanted to shut down debate. Now, in his next job, he wants to keep shutting down debate. There's a similar parity with his predecessor, the former member for Pearce—when he was Leader of the House he wanted to back Clive Palmer; now he wants to be employed by Clive Palmer. It has all continued. But in that time—

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