Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support Senator Nash’s comments. We understand Senator Xenophon’s motivation in moving these amendments and would support the motivation behind them. But, however well-intentioned they are, I fear they may fail to deliver in coming up with an interim plan that Senator Xenophon hopes would enable an emergency response. Instead, they risk coming up with an interim plan that would essentially be the surrogate real plan, would last for significantly longer than the interim and would ultimately stave off what should be the arrival at the end point, which is a permanent and ongoing plan. On that basis, whilst Senator Xenophon’s amendments are very well intentioned, I do not believe that we can support them.