Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

The minister at the table giggles and suggests that he's meeting best practice in so generously briefing the shadow minister at this time. The fact is, as we know, there's been a policy development process underway for months, but the minister has, in quite a calculated and deliberate fashion, very specifically decided to only now make available the terms of the bill, the several hundred pages we can see weighing down the table in a considerable fashion. That has only been shared with the House in the last 30 minutes, and the timetable that the government has put is that all others in this parliament should be required to get across these hundreds of pages and to begin participating in the debate tomorrow.

There is absolutely nothing to stop the minister demonstrating his bona fides, demonstrating his reasonableness by indicating right now that what he will do is agree to the amendment the opposition has moved and program this bill for debate in this House from 16 October 2023. That would be the first day of the next period of sittings. That would allow appropriate time for the opposition and for others in this parliament to study the extensive detail, the many hundreds of pages of wording in this bill, to consult with appropriate stakeholders and to then participate in a deliberative legislative process in a serious way.

Unfortunately, what we've seen from this minister instead is what can only be described as a legislative smash and grab exercise. And this isn't the first time this minister has done just this. He did this with the legislation he introduced last year—indeed, last year, we saw a threat from the minister that parliament would return on a Saturday, at extraordinary expense to taxpayers, as part of—

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