Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I understand the process. The Greens are seeking to split the bills and deal with them separately. I do not believe that that would then alter the way you would deal with it in committee, quite frankly. We would be able to deal with them. As we deal with all bills, we deal with them in seriatim and the Committee of the Whole process is designed to ensure that the questions are put separately in relation to amendments to each particular bill. So I think you would achieve the same objective. In dealing with them separately, it means that you would have three second reading debates and you would then extend the period because people could then choose to speak on each individual bill. You would then have three separate committees of the whole. It would take a significant time. The government does object to that. Where bills are related bills they can be dealt with concurrently and it is a more sensible process, in the government’s view, to deal with them in that way. You are now seeking to use up more of the time of the Senate—and we all know that the time of the Senate is precious to deal with the legislative program which we have before us. Without going into a full-blown debate on this, I have indicated that the government’s position is to oppose the matter.