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

It seems that we are on the precedent motion, and I think it is clear that this bill is one that you would not give precedent to, quite frankly. We are now in a very odd position, where the opposition feel minded to hijack the Senate procedures to fix what would otherwise be a silly position they have got themselves into. I will take the Senate through this madness that the opposition are now putting forward. I will go back to the position where, at budget, the opposition agreed to pass our budget measures, except the private health insurance issue, which they would have a debate about. I think that is clear. Those were the words that Mr Hockey used at the time—I do not have them before me but I recall them in that way, and if I have not recalled them correctly I am happy to correct the record.

In short, the government made clear what its position was in relation to its budget. It is a budget that means that issues such as this would need to be passed so that things like Avastin as an emerging treatment for bowel cancer, new paternity leave reforms, incentives to get doctors to the bush and matters relating to regional cancer centres and the like can be proceeded with. It is about providing realistic savings out of the budget to allow these matters to be dealt with—and when technology and techniques improve. The government put forward this position to ensure that where technology did improve you could change your schedules. That is the next piece of this puzzle: where the government, quite rightly, moves to change or introduce a regulation to deal with the schedule. The opposition always has the opportunity to say, ‘We object to that position,’ and have a debate about that at the appropriate time. That is the position we would ordinarily come across. But, in dealing with it in seriatim, as we are—and as Senator Cormann has quite correctly said—we would oppose that position and we would not agree to the schedule. Notwithstanding the rationale or the arguments that might have been put forward, that is a debate you would have during the disallowance motion.

However, Senator Cormann, in making policy on the run, seems to have turned little attention to how this place works. It works by the government ensuring that its legislative program is dealt with in terms of what is before it in the Senate. The government determines the order of bills that are dealt with in the Senate, and that is the long-established precedent in this place. The opposition, to support a mad position that Senator Cormann has now adopted, have agreed to allow him to move a suspension notice to allow a private senator’s bill to be introduced into this place. So we are now in a position where the opposition, Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding have agreed to hijack the legislative program—notwithstanding that we have a lot of urgent bills to be dealt with during this sitting period and notwithstanding the pressures we have on the program for the next fortnight—to allow this pantomime by Senator Cormann to play out.