Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Our whip’s clerk. When I heard the rumour yesterday about extended hours, I checked whether we had had a phone call and we have not. Subsequently, apparently, we got a phone call. However, given that we came expecting that we would need to sit some extra hours—the preference is for sitting Friday so that we are not brain dead from sitting here into the late evenings, as has happened in the past—the Greens are willing to support this motion. We do, this time, concede that we do need to spend some extra hours on the legislative agenda, and we are willing in this instance to agree to sit this Friday. So we will be supporting the motion, because we are trying to show some goodwill to try to move the legislative agenda along, but it would be handy for us to be consulted through a leaders and whips process so that we can talk about the legislative agenda, set some priorities, do some estimates of how long it will take to discuss the legislation and have a more orderly approach. So, as I said, the Greens indicate that we will in this instance be supporting this particular motion.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Ludwig’s) be agreed to.