Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

At the end of the motion, add “but, in respect of the Copyright Amendment Bill 2006, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee report by 4 December 2006”.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave granted.

The Copyright Amendment Bill 2006 has not even come into this house. It was introduced into the other house in the last half hour; it is not here yet. The government’s own motion has set the Selection of Bills Committee a reporting date of 10 November for this legislation. It will mean that the committee will have only one week for the matter to be scheduled for a hearing date and advertised and for submissions to be dealt with. Given that the committee could schedule hearings next week and deal with all of those matters, there are estimates hearings in the following week and then the bill has to be reported on. It is ridiculous that the government should be putting a bill as important as this one through such a process.

When you look at this bill, you see that it includes matters that go to the free trade agreement, and we understand that there is an urgent date for that to be dealt with. The government has also tacked on a range of other matters, including the fair use review. In other words, the content of this bill is sufficient to warrant an inquiry that allows people time to make submissions and for the committee to deal with them. The government is jamming the legislative program by using this tactic of referring bills to committee with a short turnaround time, without allowing time for this place to look at them. The shadow minister has not even had a brief in respect of this bill to be able to determine whether it even requires a reference to a legislation committee. This is an abuse of the process, and the government should agree to this amendment.

Question put.