Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Hansard source

There is a fortnight where there are no sittings. The parliament is sitting throughout the rest of that period. You say, ‘Oh, we’ll bring it back in a month.’ The parliament is sitting throughout that period. I do not know what you do, but with something like this I think you should be consulting the Australian people. That is what Senate committees used to do: they used to actually talk to people. Surely, there should be an opportunity to ask people what they think of these proposals. But, under this measure, no-one has seen the bill—how would they know? I could ask you: how do you know? You have not seen it either. I bet that is the case. Senator Ferris, answer me this: have you seen this bill that you are proposing we refer to a Senate committee to report back within the month? Is that the case or not? I put it to you that you have not seen it and you are expecting us to agree to it. We are not as dopey as the government is on these matters. This is a shocking proposal. It is something that this Senate should reject. This opposition ought to be maintained right throughout this parliament. It is not the sort of behaviour that we should accept or tolerate.