John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 26 February 2007, from Senator Bartlett:

Dear Mr President,

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move:

“That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Australian government to unequivocally guarantee that the latest group of boat people, reportedly consisting of 83 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and 2 from Indonesia, will immediately be provided with proper independent assistance, have their refugee claims assessed openly and fairly and will not be subjected to removal to another country until those claims have been fully examined.

Yours sincerely,

(Andrew Bartlett)

Democrat Senator for Queensland

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today’s debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.