Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I maintain my position that I believe that the appropriate thing to do is to deal with this motion. I cannot support Senator Brown’s amendment, but Senator Brown does make a good point in that if you want to give pensioners something more, the money has to come from somewhere, and there are $3.27 billion of revenue measures that are being debated in this chamber that I believe need to be dealt with sooner rather than later. My concern is this: I think we should send a signal to the community that the issue of pensions is an important one. It is a priority issue, and I note the work that Senator Brown, Senator Fielding and others have done in raising this as an issue.

I believe that the appropriate thing to do is deal with the age pensioners bill up to the second reading stage but can I say, in terms of the matters implicit in Senator Brown’s amendment, that I think the people of Australia do want us to get on with legislation, get on with the luxury car tax, sooner rather than later and, whilst I respect the right of every senator to speak on every bill, I wonder whether some in the community would see this as a delaying tactic on the part of the coalition in respect of the luxury car tax measure, and I hope we can deal with that sooner rather than later.