Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Can I suggest to the minister that, in those circumstances, he might like to reconsider that which he said earlier on in the chamber today about the Labor Party not being engaged in a filibuster. Here we are as a coalition, ready, willing and able to assist the consideration of this matter, and the Labor Party are deliberately stretching it out to see if they can cobble together a deal, the details of which they are still unable to tell this chamber about. It really does expose as a complete farce, and indeed mischief, the assertion made by the leader of the government in this place, Senator Evans, when last week he told the Senate that this package of legislation had to be passed by Friday last week or else there would be all sorts of problems.

We have heard from officials that that was wrong, that consideration of the bills throughout this week would not delay the package in any way, shape or form. So one wonders why the Senate was being bullied and hectored by the leader of the government in this place, who was saying the legislation had to be passed, when departmental advice flew in the face of Senator Evans’s assertions. Clearly his assertions were not based on departmental advice, and so I think we have a very serious situation developing where the Senate was given information which was clearly incorrect. Now we have a circumstance where we as a coalition are saying we are ready to proceed and vote on these bills and the Labor Party are unwilling to either adjourn this debate or deal with it in another manner. They are deliberately filibustering this debate so that they can try to stitch something together. I am sure that as soon as I sit down they will get a backbencher to stand up and give a 15-minute talk to try to buy the government more time, and if that happens it will be proof positive of exactly what I was saying.