Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Siewert made the point that we had the debate earlier when Senator Sherry had carriage of the Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Emergency Response Consolidation) Bill 2008 for the government. As we made clear there, the bill before the Senate was crafted to ensure there were no new provisions which exclude the operation of the Racial Discrimination Act and, as the Senate is aware, our response to the review of the Northern Territory emergency response on 23 October was to commit to introducing legislation in the spring sitting of next year to bring the NTER legislation within the scope of the Racial Discrimination Act. I know Senator Siewert was urging us to do that earlier, but that was the view the government took. I do not think we ought to delay too long because, given what has happened to the bill with the amendments carried, the bill will be dead on arrival.