Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I do not intend to take more than about two minutes of the Senate’s time and I hope that what I have to say is seen as conciliatory by both sides of the chamber. I think it would be fair to say that, through a series of unfortunate events, the will of the Senate was not properly reflected in the vote in respect of this bill. I am not criticising anyone for that. I can say in relation to my not being in the chamber that I wrongly assumed that this matter was coming up after non-controversial business. I am not criticising anyone for that. I have learnt some lessons from today about trying to manage things better but I think there were some genuine misunderstandings all round and I do not ascribe any malice or bad faith on the part of anyone in this chamber leading to that series of events.

I respect Senator Carr’s position—that he does not agree with these amendments—but I think the process is important, that we deal with this. Also, as Senator Carr acknowledged, I think, quite fairly, this is about reflecting the will of the Senate and that is why the government has not taken issue with this. I hope we can move on with this debate without ascribing any blame, so that we can deal with the substance of the amendments; then, of course, the government is entitled to reject them and we will deal with them in two or three weeks time.