Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise briefly in support of this motion and to echo the comments of the member for North Sydney and the member for Goldstein. As a new member in this place, I have sat through a number of sitting weeks relatively recently where I have wondered what the point is, as I've watched people debate across the House, and it honestly feels like everyone is filibustering to fill the time when this bill is up ahead. This is a really, really important bill. It is a bill that my community is very engaged in—but it is incredibly complex. It seems like exactly the wrong bill to be trying to force through the House, particularly given that, as my colleagues have noted, this bill will not be passed by any chance before February next year. We have another sitting week coming and we have just had a sitting week cancelled, which would've been a great opportunity to get through the second reading speeches and really have a proper debate on all the amendments.

I know we're going to have to move amendments in bulk, through this motion. Again, when the bill is this complex—and it's hundreds and hundreds of pages—the idea of moving that level of complexity of amendments, in bulk, and then having a very short debate around them, is contrary to what we're trying to do here in the House, which is to have a proper examination of the legislation before us.

I'd also like to echo the points made by my other crossbench colleagues. The crossbenchers in the other place and here are willing to work with the government on trying to move forward issues that are urgent and that will make a real difference to people right now—particularly around first responders and the upcoming fire season, which we are all extremely concerned about. It also includes, as businesses start to really buckle under the pressure of the economic times, making sure people are protected adequately in terms of their redundancy. There are good reasons to do this quickly. We could be doing this quickly. There is an opportunity to do that now.

I call on the government—and I will be open-minded—to look at whether there are other options or other parts of the bill that we could move forward on quickly, and to then have more extensive debates on the things that we know we're not going to deal with until early next year.

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