Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Senator Fifield's amendment for a couple of reasons, one of which is that I am chair of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee. There has been a disturbing pattern under this government when it has cut a deal in private, whether it has lived up to the commitment or not, whether it be on the carbon tax or on gambling. We hand-pick an inquiry, we release exposure drafts and papers. We do not know what amendments are going to come in next week, Senator Xenophon. I venture to say that, if it is anything like the last time we had rolling guillotines, there will be pages and pages that are never debated in this chamber. This government likes to have its hand-picked inquiries. It says we have had these inquiries into this legislation before. But the important point with this legislation, just like in the other instances, is that I have no doubt that when this comes in as part of the rolling guillotine next week, there will be rafts of amendments tabled that will never receive the scrutiny of this chamber.

For all the importance of having joint committees work on something, this is an independent chamber. This is an independent chamber with its own standing committee system that is meant to look at legislation as it comes across from the House of Representatives. This government is constantly undermining the independence of this chamber through sham inquiries like this one.

Senator Collins, if the government believes seriously that the legislation has been inquired into enough, be honest and say that there will not be an inquiry. There will not be an inquiry into the provisions of these bills in the next seven days—it is simply not possible. There is only one non-sitting day left this year. No reasonable stakeholder has the capacity to make a considered submission and no airing of the issues that might lead to amendments is going to be undertaken by a standing committee of this place, yet the government will not be honest about the fact that the inquiry is nothing but a sham.

I have no doubt that next week there will be a series of rolling gags and guillotines. Such is the form of this chamber under the Labor-Greens duopoly which runs it. The problem is that we are dealing with complex legislation. Previously in this chamber, some bills that I was responsible for carrying and amendments to those bills never received a word of debate in this chamber—not one word. It stands as an indictment of this chamber and, indeed, of all of us that those bills were not subject to any scrutiny. I remember the howls from the south-western corner of this chamber that we needed to have genuine scrutiny and that we could not have the gag and the guillotine, but, with the Greens and their Labor allies running the chamber, the only debate that happens is the debate between the two of them about what the gag and the guillotine will eventually be about.

This legislation is deserving of scrutiny by the Senate and I doubt that anyone from the government will say that they will not be bringing in last-minute amendments or that everyone in the Senate who wishes to debate them will be given an opportunity to do so. This motion moved by Senator Collins, if it gets up without Senator Fifield's amendment, will facilitate the use of the gag and the guillotine and therefore the passage of legislation without debate in this place. It is unlikely that many people will get to speak. There may be a short period of speaking—there may be a government speaker and an opposition speaker and then perhaps Senator Xenophon, with his interest in the bills, will speak—but the members of the Senate in general will not be given a chance to debate the legislation. Senator Fifield's amendment is important because it allows the Senate to demonstrate its independence from the government of the day—its independence from the Labor-Green Alliance; its capacity to hear from stakeholders their final views in order that they might potentially inform amendments which may be moved from any part of this chamber, including the raft of amendments which will likely be tabled by the government; and its ability to facilitate consideration of legislation at an appropriate time.

The government and the Greens, by supporting a seven-day timeline, have lost any credibility whatsoever on the question of whether they allow a deliberative process in this chamber. They are running this chamber in the way that they wish they could run the House of Representatives. Every Australian should take note that, while Labor and the Greens are in office, there will not be an opportunity for voices to be heard—there will not be an opportunity for stakeholders to present to a committee and there will not be an opportunity for debate in the chamber. I note that no-one from the government is jumping to their feet or interjecting to say that there will not be a gag on or a guillotining of this legislation next week.

Senator Fifield's amendment should be supported. The legislation should come to the Senate Standing Committees on Finance and Public Administration, as the government originally intended, on the basis that it is the committee which handles legislation from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The bleating of this government and the Greens about independence cannot be taken seriously.