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

We had the day before yesterday the opposition move to take over government time with a private member’s bill and now we are getting the opposition arguing that government business time should not be taken over by further debate of a private member’s bill that is already underway. I have been very clear about this. I have asked the government to have this legislation debated this morning because we have not been able to implement the change that Senator Fifield was talking about, to wit, the implementation of private member’s time. But we should have done that. The matter has been on the agenda not just since the election; it has been there for the last three years—and, in one way or another, it has been blocked by both the government and the opposition from being processed through the Procedure Committee. It ought to have been in place by now but it is not. On the easiest count, 10 hours of private member’s time has been denied in the Senate because there has been no progress on that matter. It is a very simple thing: like other parliaments around the world we should have private member’s time that deals with legislation. This is a poor second in that, having started the debate on this important piece of legislation to restore territory rights, we should see that legislation through to fruition. It is not a second-rate piece of legislation; it is an important piece of legislation. I have had talks just this week with the chief ministers of both the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory about restoring the rights of the territories as near as we can to those of the states. This legislation should proceed to debate now. (Time expired)