Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I hope we do not make a mountain out of a molehill here. I accept in good faith what Senator Evans has said. I accept that it is very important that on the significant conscience issues the Senate debates from time to time we get as much goodwill and consensus about how they are handled—that is important. There is a point at which matters are dealt with on a government-opposition basis and they then become fully conscience issues. For my part, I want to seek to avoid any dispute about how the matters are handled but, with great respect, it is a little difficult, because they are private members’ bills dealing with conscience matters. The bills have not actually been presented, so we are feeling our way forward on this, but I accept that we do need to get clarity on the process as soon as possible. That is why I have suggested that we have a leaders’ and whips’ meeting today straight after question time to ensure that there is no confusion or misunderstanding about how we should deal with this and that we get some consensus. Perhaps we can proceed on that basis. Accept our apologies if there has been any misunderstanding. Hopefully we can start from a clean sheet from today and deal with this as best we can. It is not going to be easy for any of us.