Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Edwards, I thank you for the question. I will give you a bit of advice because you are new: you have been set up by your colleagues. There is a reason why none of the frontbench asked this: they were all here when the Howard government guillotined through bill after bill. They were here when we were given a matter of hours to deal with bills. We were given 30 minutes before second reading speeches were intro­duced. What we have done is allow time for proper debate of the legislation. There is a proper joint select committee and we are setting aside two weeks to debate those bills. How we use that time will be up to the opposition. Whether they engage with the bills, whether they take a positive attitude to examining the bills, is up to them. If, as we have seen over the last two weeks, they just deliberately time waste and seek not to engage in the proper parliamentary process is a decision for them. I say to the senator: be very careful what they give you to stand up and ask, because the record of the Howard government in these matters was appalling. This government has given people a month's notice and a Senate select committee. The bills are available now and, when we come to debate them in the Senate, a full two weeks will be set aside for that debate. We encourage you to actually take an interest in the content rather than just in the rhetoric.