Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

Family First will vote on this motion with good prudence and not politics; good governance and not games. They are important principles here. I do not take the rearrangement of government business lightly. But it is an absolute farce to think that, because the government have not been able to order the business, we might be sitting again late in the evening in order to make very important decisions. We have fewer sitting days this year and all they want us to do now is sit longer at the last minute. They have made the claim that the bills listed have a deadline of 30 June. It is prudent to treat these bills first in order to deal with them. Then we can focus on the CPRS legislation. That is prudence, not politics. Politics would be whacking the CPRS legislation upfront to try to get it through quickly so you can get to other, more urgent, issues. They have to play fair here. They should not play games. It is their fault that the chamber is left in this position of rearranging their business. It is the government’s job to order the business in this chamber but this week they have failed. It is not about games; it is about them getting on with the issue of organising business in a way that is conducive to the process of good decision making. Doing it late at night is just ridiculous. They have said that those pieces of legislation listed in the opposition motion need to be passed by 30 June. Let us get on with it and have the debate on those. Then let us get to the CPRS legislation and have the debate on that. It is prudence, not politics, to do it. It is good governance, not game playing.

I do not take this motion lightly and I do not see it as game-playing and I do not see it as politics. I see it as prudent and good governance. I urge senators to think about their vote and to think about it in those terms and vote for this motion. Let us get these pieces of legislation that have a deadline of 30 June through. We can get through those debates then get to the CPRS legislation, rather than the other way around. It is not stalling; it is about prudence. It is not about politics; it is about prudence. It is not about games; it is good governance. I urge all senators to look at this. This is the first time I have supported—I believe; I may be corrected—a rearranging of business in this way. Yes, it is the government’s job to do it, but they have failed to order the business in a constructive way and a way conducive to good decision making. I urge senators to support this motion because it is prudent. It is politics not to support it; it is game-playing not to support it, and it is good governance to support it. I urge senators to support this motion.