Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This seems like a bad deal between the government and the opposition coming to a bad end. I would have thought the government would support an amendment to an arrangement for some decency in the working hours of this place. That is what we have moved to do. It is reasonable that senators, after 24 hours, here have overnight before coming back. It might be necessary to sit for 12-hour shifts, but to sit 24-hour shifts is a bit beyond the pale. Those of us who have been here for a while know what that means. It means a great deal of failure to move on and pale faces and crankiness in the early hours of the morning. It is a very reasonable amendment. I think we can work out an arrangement to move forward. I take it from Senator Parry’s contribution that the new coalition does not think it will need more than tomorrow to dump the emissions trading scheme. As far as the Greens are concerned—