Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I think Senator Abetz's own comments might be useful here. In March 2013 he said:

Can I repeat—repeat—and say very, very strongly on behalf of the opposition that we oppose any further adjourning of the Senate, because we believe these issues need to be ventilated, and ventilated fully.

He goes on to say:

They are treating this chamber in a most shameful manner.

We have a situation where, with virtually no notice, the Manager of Government Business moves to change the sitting hours—

…   …   …   

… when it comes to the management of this place the safest and most respectful pair of hands to manage the Senate is not the Green-Labor alliance … we actually do respect this place.

We know that what is happening on that side is a government that has mismanaged its program and does not want to talk about Holden workers. (Time expired)