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

Maybe Senator Carr realises he is in a bit of trouble with youth allowance and he is trying to delay as much as possible getting to the real committee stage on youth allowance. Maybe that is the problem there—I do not know. But I do know that, as I said before, the government could not manage themselves out of a wet paper bag at the moment with ordering their business in this chamber. I will say it again: 50 sitting days next year is an absolute insult to the Australian public and it is an insult to this chamber. Think of it: a new government does not want scrutiny of its own legislation and is quite happy to make sure that next year the same thing will happen in the last two weeks again by having fewer sitting weeks to cover the issues and leaving them to the last minute to bring them through. I will not be supporting the government on this issue, and we should get on with the youth allowance reforms.