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

The opposition essentially agrees with the views put by Senator Murray and Senator Joyce in relation to these amendments. We think it is incumbent upon the government to give passage to the Dawson bill. We do not want to provide the government with an excuse to further delay the passage of that legislation; they have the opportunity to give effect to these measures. If they are serious about these issues for all business sectors, as Senator Joyce puts it, not least the petroleum retail sector, they would expeditiously give passage to that legislation. Indeed, if they wanted to deal with this issue specifically for this industry only, they could support Senator Fielding’s amendments. As I understand it, they have indicated that they are not going to, and that is a test of their bona fides, I suspect, in relation to how serious they are about these measures. We will not be supporting these amendments. We continue to support the Dawson bill measures which have been passed in this chamber. We encourage the government to pass them in the House of Representatives, and we will continue to press that.