Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

As motions go, this one is a little peculiar. We are in the first Senate sitting week after the budget, and yet we have a non-government party seeking to determine the priorities in government business legislation time. It is a generally accepted convention in this place that, in the ordinary course of events, the government gets to determine what is occurring in government business time—and I would have thought that that would be even more the case in the first Senate sitting week after the budget. I would expect that the Labor Party would not support this motion given that Mr Burke, from the other place, earlier this week was protesting that there should indeed be more time for the consideration of government bills. With Mr Burke, the Manager of Opposition Business in the other place, arguing at the start of the week that there should be more time for consideration of budget bills, it would be perverse if his colleagues in the Senate supported a motion that would in fact delay the consideration of further budget bills. I would like to make two points. Firstly, I think the ordinary convention should be observed that the government gets to determine, in an orderly and methodical way, the priorities in government business time. Secondly, I think the opposition should be consistent and follow the instruction of Mr Burke, from the other place, that it is appropriate that budget bills have precedence at this time, particularly in the first Senate sitting week after the budget.