Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the time and order of business for the sitting tomorrow, 18 August 2009, be as follows:

(1)

the House, at its rising, adjourn until tomorrow at 12 noon; and

(2)

government business have priority from 12 noon until 2 pm

For the benefit of members, it is the government’s intention to bring on the debate for the renewable energy target legislation immediately today. We will debate that up until 2 pm. We will, after question time, return to that debate and then, after private members’ business if need be, return to that debate again. A number of members have put themselves down to speak on the second reading, and we do not wish for people to not be able to make a contribution. However, I can certainly indicate that the Chief Government Whip has asked members on this side of the chamber to restrict their comments as far as possible; I understand the Chief Opposition Whip has done the same. Of course, I indicate that that would not be appropriate for the opposition spokesperson, who will be able to speak for as long as he wishes to.

It is the intention of the government to allow speakers tonight, through a negating of the adjournment of the House, to continue so that all those speeches will be concluded. That way we can come back here tomorrow at 12 noon, have any debates and votes that are required on that legislation and then move back to the education debate that has been listed. There will be an understanding with the opposition that there will be no votes this evening so that people who had made arrangements will not be disadvantaged by that. I thank the opposition for their cooperation, and I thank the staff of the parliament for staying back this evening.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Briefly, the opposition are quite happy to facilitate the passing of this bill tonight through the House of Representatives. We are quite prepared to deal with the consideration in detail stage this evening, and we are quite prepared to have any votes that might be necessary tonight. We, the government and, I think, members of the community share the view that the renewable energy targets legislation should be dealt with one way or the other as quickly as possible to give people in the community certainty. It has already been delayed long enough, from the opposition’s point of view. As you know, we had not insisted that the ETS legislation and the RET legislation be together—we had been quite happy for them to be decoupled—and this legislation could have been passed two months ago. There are many people in the community who are waiting to see what the parliament does with this bill. So the Leader of the House should know that the opposition are quite prepared to have this bill passed and dealt with this evening. We have not asked our members to cut back their important contributions unless they feel that they are capable of doing so and happy to do so. If they cooperate, that will make it easier for us to deal with this this evening. Therefore, the time from 12 till two tomorrow may or may not be necessary; we might well be able to wrap this issue up this afternoon or this evening and then get it into the Senate so that the Senate can deal with it with all their wisdom, energy and experience as they see fit over the course of the next three days.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just in closing the debate, I note the comments of the Manager of Opposition Business, and that will be given consideration by the government. It may well be that we can get the debate concluded this evening. I think that would be difficult, however, if we are going to interrupt the debate for a number of hours with private members’ business. Certainly it is the government’s priority to get this legislation through. If the opposition were prepared to agree to the deferment of private members’ business that would make it much more feasible, given the number of speakers listed. What we will do is to engage in further debate with the opposition. It is certainly not the government’s view that we would defer private members’ business by a majority vote—that would be by agreement—so we will enter into further discussions. I commend the current recommendation to the House.

Question agreed to.