Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I did not intend to enter this debate but, given what has just been said by the Manager of Opposition Business and Opposition Whip, I have to say this: is the good senator suggesting that we should have kept the bill on the red even though it was not available to us? The nonsense in his argument is that we were supposed to keep the bill on the red because it had been there before, when in fact we could not keep it on today’s red because it had not passed the House of Representatives. He knows that. The fact of the matter is that what he is trying to say is: ‘We have this strategy. We were going to deal with the disallowance today.’ We have been dealing with all sorts of adjournments and disallowance motions this week and there has been no indication that this was the path they considered essential, that the disallowance might have to be put back or that some other action had to be considered.

Senator Xenophon belled the cat in his contribution earlier that this action this morning was discussed and arranged last night. The suggestion by Senator Parry and Senator Cormann that this matter was not decided until this morning is a fiction. It was cooked up last night, and Senator Xenophon has belled the cat. There was no consultation with us about this. We did not know until the bells were ringing this morning. There was no opportunity to discuss it. It was clearly an ambush. I reject the suggestion that this is not purely and simply a move by Senator Cormann and the coalition to give themselves political cover because they want to disallow something—and there is a consequence to that. That is their position. They are trying to give themselves political cover. That is what this is about and the Australian people will see through it.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Cormann’s) be agreed to.