Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Out of respect to you, Deputy Speaker, I would note that this is indeed how we do consideration in detail. Question time will be in a couple of hours. Members are more than welcome to ask questions in question time in that format under those standing orders, but I'll continue to operate under the consideration in detail standing orders, which have served this place well for many years.

Again, how did we get to these recommendations that the government is acting on? The government is acting on what has been put to government by a multipartisan committee. That goes all the way back to 5 August 2022, when the Special Minister of State wrote to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters and specifically asked them to inquire into donation reform, funding of elections, limits on spending and truth in advertising. It's there in the letter with the referral for the inquiry: limits on spending. And the idea that we will somehow take out those limits on spending at the last minute, after talking about it for more than two years, deeply concerns me.

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters released an interim report, and that interim report goes all the way back to 19 June 2023, combined with the final report. I want to read out some of those recommendations—which, again, have been with us for more than 1½ years.

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