Natasha Stott Despoja (SA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to say that the Democrats do not have a problem with the proposed longer inquiry. I do not think anyone has actually sought our views or felt a need to liaise with us, given that this is an issue post 1 July, but I would like to acknowledge that we have had some concerns with some of the matters that are contained within that legislation. I think it was initially popped into the non-controversial legislation category and was due to be debated on Thursday of this week. So we are glad to see this referred to committee. Obviously it is much of a muchness now as to whether or not it reports as proposed by the government or indeed by the opposition, but I do not think a few extra weeks would be a particular problem. Having said that, I will not be there to do the debate, but I am actually very glad that we are not going to be dealing with this through a ‘non-controversial’ lunchtime period, because I think that the legislation deserves more analysis, more scrutiny and potentially some debate and amendment.