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

Mr Acting Deputy President, I allowed Senator Cormann to speak in silence. Interjections are disorderly. It seems that he does not like me explaining his madness. Quite frankly, I can understand that. I might have interjected too if I had started this madness. I do have the right to be heard in quiet, and he should defer to that, rather than highlighting the fact that his position is untenable and exposed.

So he looked at a bill about Medicare compliance, all the way over in the House of Representatives, and thought: ‘Ah-ha! I have a way of stopping myself looking so stupid in this instance. If I oppose the disallowance motion, the position I will find myself in is that the Medicare schedule that has been introduced will drop away.’ But, of course, the bill is not in the Senate. It is a matter for the government when it comes to the Senate. That is the legislative program. He guesses a whole range of ideas as to why it has not moved from the House to the Senate, but those are assumptions he has made in relation to how these things work. But, notwithstanding that—