Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The normal way that these things would be done, of course, is that you would be given formality. I was going to speak to the motion after I moved it. I seek leave to speak to it now instead.

Leave granted.

What I have put forward is the usual position that happens each year at this time of the year. What we normally do—and that is what this motion contains—is put the list of bills that we seek to achieve before we break for Christmas. I also indicate that occasionally some of those bills might fall off the end, and they are usually put at the last time—such as the Tax Laws Amendment (Political Contributions and Gifts) Bill 2008 and the horse disease response bills. With all good cooperation, if we get to those, we do; if we do not, they sometimes, to say it euphemistically, fall off the edge. The bills on that list are the bills that we seek to achieve. At the conclusion of those bills, we would then propose the adjournment and go home. That is the usual process that we adopt every year and at the end of every session as well.

In this instance, the way we then structure breaks is by the cooperation of all around the chamber—the opposition, the minor party and the Independents. We would then suspend. As I understand the workload ahead of us today, it would be more than likely that we will be debating some of these bills into the evening. Usually at about 10 or 11 o’clock in the evening we make a judgement call as to whether or not we require another hour to finish or whether we are more likely to come back the next day. At that point—between 10 and 11 o’clock—we usually consult around the chamber as to the likelihood of that. If it looks unlikely that we would finish and that we would need to come back tomorrow, we would then suspend. We would then come back. Usually we would start at nine, but we usually agree on that as well with everyone’s cooperation in the chamber. We would then come back at nine and start the program again. Of course, if there were a need for any other breaks, past experience has indicated to me that we normally finish some time during the Friday. We usually try to agree amongst ourselves when we are likely to propose the adjournment. At that point, the adjournment would be proposed. In the past, it has varied between midmorning, lunch and sometimes it has been, from my recollection, a little later on early Friday evening.

That is the process that this hours of meeting motion seeks to put in place. The way the chamber works at this time is by cooperation in order to get through the program that has been outlined. There are not, in the usual course of events, a significant number of bills to be dealt with. There is a package of bills. It is not longer than what I have experienced in the past; in fact, it is probably a little shorter. There are some bills that will require significant debating time, such as, as I understand it, the COAG bill. With good cooperation around the chamber, we should be able to work through that program and hopefully propose the adjournment this evening, but we may end up sitting tomorrow. Of course, it will also depend on those bills which have to go across to the other chamber, should they be amended, and then return for consideration. That sometimes creates a delay while we send the bill across to the House. I hope that larger explanation assists.