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

The point is that we have gone through a committee stage where the minister announced, before the committee members had even met, the closing date of the committee hearings. We then went into a two-day farce in which 30 witnesses were crammed into the hearings. Witnesses were instructed before they commenced their contributions that they could only speak for five minutes. Opposition senators were only allowed 10 minutes and Democrats and minor party senators were allowed five minutes. We now come to the actual debate in the committee stage and the guillotine is scheduled to be moved tomorrow morning, which will only allow a further four hours to deal with the hundreds of amendments that the government are moving.

The government are even moving amendments to their own amendments. How on earth is the chamber meant to deal with this? Or are we going to see a repeat of the disgrace of the Telstra debate, where the minister was so incapable of answering any questions about her own legislation that she had her own senators filibuster a guillotine in the debate. Are we going to be witness to Senator Ronaldson, Senator Macdonald and others—Senator Brandis, an expert when it comes to the filibuster—standing up and taking up the only four hours this chamber is going to get to deal with these hundreds of amendments? Is that the plan again, Senator Ronaldson? Minister, perhaps you could answer that question. Are you so afraid of questions on this bill that you need your own side to waste the time? I would actually like a genuine answer to that. Everyone knows the farce that the Telstra debate was, where your own senators actual stood up.