Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I will keep my contribution fairly short. I indicate that we will be supporting Senator Moore's amendment. In fact, we had a separate referral to the opposition on the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014 and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment Bill 2014, and we will be supporting reporting dates of 5 June and 16 June.

I think that, of the current members of the committee, I have been on the Selection of Bills Committee the longest. We do try to work in a cooperative way in that committee, but it is not fair to characterise that committee as always agreeing on everything. I would like to remind the chamber that we have had a number of debates in this place regarding disagreements on reports from the Selection of Bills Committee, including under the previous government. A number of senators have also brought separate references to the chamber directly, having not referred bills through the selection of bills process.

It has always been a robust process. We do not always agree, although we try to. Sometimes we just cannot reach agreement on reporting dates through that committee process. I think we should stop canning and caning the selection of bills process and accept that we will not always agree, though we try our hardest to. The right and proper place to have a debate is in this place.