Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President, and I thank the Senate. I simply seek to make clear the coalition's position in relation to the bill that was just voted down, given that it was last year that my second-reading contribution was recorded. The coalition is extremely disappointed that the Labor Party and the Australian Greens just joined forces to stymie debate on this legislation of Senator Madigan and Senator Xenophon. We had sincerely hoped to be able to proceed to the committee stage and had circulated, as all senators are aware, extensive amendments to Senator Madigan and Senator Xenophon's legislation. The coalition supported the second reading vote because the coalition hoped to be able to proceed with debating those amendments. Regrettably, that is not going to occur. I indicate to the Senate that the coalition's position at the third reading would have been conditional upon the passage of our amendments, which we are very disappointed not to have had the opportunity to debate.