Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This debate is all about time management. We have just had the Manager of Government Business in the Senate take over 10 minutes on a procedural matter. We certainly will not be speaking for that long. The whole idea of us objecting to the cut-off is that we want the bills debated properly and in the fullness of time. We want them debated in an appropriate manner. We do not want them rushed through in the last two days of sitting before the next session of parliament. There is no urgency demonstrated for these bills. It is a $28 billion package that needs proper consideration, and the Senate does not have any more time left this week to consider that legislation.

I will just give you some examples of where the government has mismanaged the entire chamber during this session of parliament. Last week 71 minutes were wasted: the Senate was suspended because the government did not have any legislation ready to go. These bills were first flagged on 24 January this year and now, on the second-last day of the sitting of this session, the government want to introduce major bills of this nature. That is our main opposition. Also, I think it is important to place on the public record again that we have given up general business items—which is a traditional time for the opposition to introduce important issues that it sees as necessary to raise with the public—in favour of government business, and government business was still wasted. We have also had filibustering like I have never seen before in this chamber, especially during debate on the stimulus package. The government are sometimes using these tactics to delay their program so that they can negotiate with the minors on the crossbenches. The part that we object to is that we have given up our time—we have matters of public importance that we wish to debate—purely to facilitate the government’s program, and the government are treating us like this. On the second last day of sittings they introduce bills of this magnitude which we will not have time to consider properly.

The manager has indicated that he thinks the bills would require three hours of debate. He has not even bothered to consult with this side to work out how many speakers we may wish to place on this bill. I can tell you that on our side there is a lot of interest in these bills. As far as we are concerned, there is no way that we are going to grant time to the government when it has mismanaged the entire program so far in this session. The bills can go on the list for the next session, when we will have plenty of time to consider them. We have the Fair Work Bill to get through today, and from the way that we are going with the Fair Work Bill—some of the minister’s responses to it have been very long and protracted—I think we are going to need the rest of this session just to deal with it and some of the other legislation on the program. We do not grant an exemption from the cut-off for these bills.