Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I feel the need to place on the record that, despite my office contacting Minister Macfarlane’s office with regard to the proposed amendments, the government was unable to see its way clear to supply the amendments to the opposition. I do not know whether anyone else received them before they were tabled during the conclusion of the second reading debate on this legislation this morning. If that is an indication of the approach that the government intends to take to this chamber when it is proposing to amend legislation—on the basis that it believes it has the numbers to do those sorts of things—so be it, but I make the point that the minister’s office can do a lot better.

If we are about scrutinising legislation and getting a proper outcome, the opposition ought to get copies of proposed amendments before the debate commences in the chamber, unless it is impossible to do so. If the amendments are, as I hear across the chamber, minor and technical, there is even more reason for the opposition to receive them early, for an understanding to be gained about them rather than needing to ascertain that during the course of the debate in the chamber. Minor and technical they may be, but I think courtesy ought to be shown by the minister’s office—not the minister in this chamber but Minister Macfarlane’s office—and the amendments should be circulated or some indication of intention circulated before the event.