Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (Senator Coonan) to questions without notice asked today.

What a demonstration in the last 24 hours of the arrogance and out-of-touch behaviour of a 10-year-long government. I am hoping Senator Eggleston will stay and join in this debate because he has a crucial role to play in the next few weeks. Yesterday we saw Senator Coonan on behalf of Senator Eggleston announce the date and the timing of a Senate committee. There was no consultation whatsoever with members of the committee, including Senator Eggleston. I am willing to bet that the first Senator Eggleston knew about the deadline was when he read it in the press release. What an extraordinary abuse of process. Senator Ronaldson is on this committee and I bet he did not know anything about this deadline either. As we have seen in documents circulated today, the Senate is going to be allowed a grand total of three days of hearings in Canberra. Originally, it was said that there would be some meetings around the country, but no: three days in Canberra—nothing more. What has Senator Barnaby Joyce got to say about this? What has Senator Ron Boswell got to say about this? What has Senator Fiona Nash got to say about this? What has Senator Eggleston got to say about this?