Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In respect to the position of the opposition, we accept that the will of the Senate needs to prevail at the end of the day. We thank Senator Ferris for coming into the chamber and explaining what happened. It is a situation we accept can happen from time to time. But it has not always been the situation where the government has come in and given us an explanation. If my memory serves me correctly, last time this happened, on 2 March, we were given no explanation. There was just a motion to recommit a vote. That has not happened this time. We thank the government for that, but there is clearly an expectation from the opposition that if these occurrences happen in the future that there will be a proper and full explanation given to the Senate before the Senate is put to the difficulty of recommitting a vote.