Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I think that to do duty to our job as senators, to do duty to our process, we need to ensure that we have further opportunity to consider what has been said by the community. Other people will have more comments, but I do not believe, as a member of this Senate, that the process that we have taken to date has given due consideration to the role of the Senate. The Senate committee process, which is the background to what we do, has not been allowed to function fully. There was no attempt to talk to community members. I think it is important that we understand that what we are being asked to do is actually shortcutting the process. What we have been asked to do by the government today is to cut through, to shortcut the process, to ensure that the debate does not reflect the wider information that we must have before we come to this place. It is not a worthy process to rush this through in this way. It is not a worthy process to dismiss the concerns of people in the community who want to hear this debate fully. It does not fulfil those same promises that we heard earlier today about ensuring that this place actually does listen and care and that when we come into this place we do not just bring our own personal opinions; we bring consideration of committee process and recommendations that we have come to expect.