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

One of the advantages of speaking late in the night, after a number of my colleagues have spoken on the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Bill 2013, is that all of the technical issues addressed in the bill have been fully canvassed. I am particularly pleased to have heard from Senator Sinodinos and Senator Back, who gave a very powerful speech on some of his personal experiences in relation to the good work that many religious orders do, particularly in the aged-care area.

What concerns me about this bill is the way that the Labor Party are managing it through this chamber. As I understand it, when this bill went through the House of Representatives recently—I am not sure if it was earlier this week or perhaps a couple of weeks back—it had universal support because it dealt with discrimination and it dealt with the extension of laws to prevent discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status. It was a bill that had been around for a while and on which there had been quite a bit of discussion and consultation. That consultation and that policy work resulted in a bipartisan approach being taken to this very important issue. When the bill went through the lower house, the Labor Party, the single Greens person, those Independents that were interested enough to contribute and certainly the coalition all indicated support for the bill. On that basis, it passed through the lower house.

Something happened on the way to the Senate, and I am not sure that any of the speakers from the Labor Party or the Greens have yet indicated to us what it was that happened—

Senator Siewert interjecting—

I see, so the aged-care committee reported—

Senator Siewert interjecting—

And that was a unanimous report, was it, Senator?