Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I concur with the remarks that Senator Birmingham has just made. This shows a huge disrespect to the chamber. The reason we have the committee stage is so we can go through legislation in a detailed manner, ensuring that everybody in the chamber has the opportunity to be provided by the minister, by the government, the detail that we need to be able to make an informed decision on legislation. This is a joke. This is not informing us in any way, shape or form—and no disrespect to the minister at all because it is not his fault. There is no way that we are going to be able to glean any reasonable amount of information from this process which will inform our decision-making process on this legislation.

I think it is simply another example of the incredibly shoddy way this government is dealing with legislation and the way it is running the country. The minister should make himself available as soon as he possi­bly can. I concur with Senator Birmingham: go on to something we can deal with and we will come back to this when we can get the appropriate level of advice.