Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to contribute to this debate on the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Further MySuper and Transparency Measures) Bill 2012. Unfortunately, I will have to curtail my time because I know there are so many of my colleagues who want to make a contribution to what is a very particular piece of legislation, one that requires far more scrutiny than we are able to give it in the very constrained time that has been allowed by the government and the Greens political party.

It is good to see at least that the Greens are in the chamber for the debate. I say to Senator Ludlam that we are constrained in this debate because you and your Labor Party mates have guillotined this and many other bills through the parliament. Senator, I am not sure whether you were here but in the Howard government's time when we, on about five occasions, time-managed a bill we would then have hour-long contributions by the then Senator Brown, your former leader, and, I think, from Senator Ludlam about how awful and how undemocratic it was, and how the world was coming to an end, because the Howard government time-managed two or three bills when those were essential for Australia.