George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to briefly indicate that, as far as the opposition is concerned, we do not believe the government has made a case for this proposed resolution or for these extended sitting hours this week. It has not demonstrated why there is urgency in respect of many of these bills. One has to assume that the only reason that we will be sitting late tonight, late on Thursday night and till Friday afternoon is that there is an intent to call an election sometime between Friday and when the Senate is due to sit again in the middle of October. Otherwise, why is there the necessity to push through these bills, many of which do not have an urgency tag on them?

The government have said, too, that they want to finish by Friday afternoon. We know it is not possible, on the basis of the hours allocated, for these bills to be completed by Friday afternoon, yet they have not identified to us which are the priority bills that they want to have dealt with. They are simply saying that all of them are in the net and their intent is to finish all of them. What that will mean, if that is pursued, is that there will not be sufficient time to give these bills proper consideration by the Senate.

We have indicated that we are not going to be steamrolled into passing legislation; we will deal with each bill on its merits and we will deal with it in a considered way. We are not going to be steamrolled just to ensure that the government meets its objective of getting these 30 bills through by Friday afternoon.

As I have indicated, I do not believe that the government has made a case for having these additional sitting hours, nor has it attempted to make a case for these additional sitting hours. It is simply putting forward this motion because it knows ultimately that it has got the numbers to force it through and the forces to deal with these bills in that way. I want to make it clear on behalf of the opposition that we will be opposing the motion.