Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The government is clearly embarrassed by this, because two days ago we gave a notice of reference of this very important issue to the Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and the government was caught sleeping at the wheel, because it did not even think of that. It knows that important legislation goes to a Senate committee, and that has been the practice for years. When it saw the notice of motion brought by the opposition it suddenly thought, ‘We’d better get on this bandwagon,’ and yesterday it rushed in a late reference to the Selection of Bills Committee with, initially, a reporting date of early March until pressure was put on them and the government then said 12 March. This was one of the most important issues in the election last year. There is no doubt that workplace relations was front and centre in the election held just a few months ago. This government was only going to give a few weeks for the review of that legislation.

What we propose is that the reporting date be 28 April. That is the alternative motion that we have put up. But to try and meet the government and accommodate its desire to move legislation along, we are suggesting that we could bring that forward to mid-April and have the Senate sit for the week commencing 5 May, before the budget, to consider that legislation and report. We have heard about the Prime Minister saying, ‘We’re back at work and we’re going to have Friday sittings in the other place.’ Let us see if he is going to put his money where his mouth is. Let us see if this bloke can really work, because I can tell you that we are willing to work. We are willing to bring back the Senate. The Senate has the lightest sitting pattern in the first half of this year that I have ever seen. I can tell you right now: it is a disgrace, because the government is scared. It is scared of Senate scrutiny.

What we are proposing is that this bill go to a Senate committee. We will bring forward the reporting date to accommodate the government but, importantly, we will set aside an extra week of sitting so that the Senate can consider that report and the legislation, and we will do it before the budget so that the government can get on to the important job of the budget. We recognise that. But let us have another sitting week beforehand. The government is refusing this. It is scared of work and it is lazy. I say to the people of Australia: you have a government here which will not front up to the parliament. It is lazy, it is scared of extra sitting days and it is scared of scrutiny of one of the most important issues that Australians looked at in the election. We believe that an issue such as this should be given close attention over a period of time to enable all those interested to put forward a submission to the Senate committee. There is nothing more reasonable than that. We are willing to bring that reporting date forward and we are willing to sit an extra week to consider that.

This government is scared. It is lazy and scared. It does not want an extra week and does not want extra Senate scrutiny. We have a Prime Minister who is trying to fool people by saying: ‘Yes, we are hardworking. We are going to have extra sitting days.’ Yet in the Senate we have fewer sitting days, and we are saying, ‘Let’s bring the Senate back earlier.’ After an extensive period of some seven weeks of recess over April, we can set aside an extra week to give this due consideration. During that recess we can have the time to examine one of the most important issues this nation considered in the recent election. What do we get from this government? We get a complete refusal—a refusal which is arrogant and which absolutely flies in the face of its responsibility to give the people of this nation a chance to look at one of the most important issues that we faced in the last election.

It is simple: we are willing to put in the hours. We are willing to bring back the Senate earlier. We are willing to bring on the reporting date earlier. What we are not willing to do is to give to this government what it seeks, and that is a couple of weeks review in the normal sitting period so it gets jammed into the normal legislative agenda. We realise that this is an important issue.