Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Fielding has indicated that there are three amendments circulating—from Family First, from the Australian Greens and from the opposition—that relate in a sense to the same issue. They are all pretty much in the same spirit. I congratulate Senator Hanson-Young. Again, I do not take any issue with the spirit of the amendment. It is just that the opposition believes that its amendments are more in line with the Senate committee and also are sufficiently flexible to better facilitate access to higher education by rural students. I think this does facilitate debate on this issue, so it was a good move by Senator Hanson-Young to insist upon this interposition. We cannot support the Greens amendment but we do support the spirit of the amendment.

Question put:

That the amendment (Senator Hanson-Young’s) be agreed to.