Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously Senator Brown is entitled to move the amendment if he wishes. It is disappointing, because the government had understood that as a result of negotiations with the Attorney-General’s office—and I have some emails that have been forwarded to me from your staff, Senator Brown—a wording that the government could support had been agreed with the Australian Greens. We would have been able to support such an amendment. I will quote from what was sent to us:

The registrar shall cause at least one registry in each state to be staffed on a full-time basis, with a complement of staff in each registry to include a registrar.

It is very unusual for Senator Brown to do something that Senator Abetz wants, but clearly on this occasion it seems that there has been a meeting of minds whereby the Greens are now supporting the position that the opposition are putting, as opposed to what we understood had been negotiated with the government. That may not be your understanding, Senator Brown, but that was my advice.

This is an issue about the effective use of resources. The government, in good faith, sought to negotiate with the crossbenchers to enable a provision in the bill that talks about staffing on a full-time basis but recognising that whether or not the registrar needs to be full time should properly be a decision of the court and should take into account the efficient use of resources. I will not traverse the issues any further, unless the Senate desires it. The government is not in a position to support the amendment as moved. We were in a position to support the amendment that we had previously understood would be moved.