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

In this place, I have never seen before a political party deny quorum to a duly constituted committee of the Australian parliament because they knew they would lose the vote on that committee. All Senator Ruston and her government colleagues want to do is to be able to report their work to this chamber so that debate can commence on the carbon tax repeal package of legislation.

The Australian Labor Party needs to understand that the Australian Senate and its committees are not like a trade union executive—you cannot play games. You cannot say, 'Hey, let's all leave the room. Let us withhold quorum so the union executive cannot exercise a vote.' This is not a trade union executive. This is not a student union where these sorts of games are played. This is the Australian Senate. The committee that Senator Ruston chairs is a duly constituted committee of the Australian Senate. The Labor Party and the Greens are seeking to prevent that committee doing its work.

The committee members have completed their work, they are ready to report, and those opposite should provide quorum to allow that to happen. We are having this procedural debate today because of the games that Labor and the Greens are playing. We are having this procedural debate so that we can do something very straightforward—that is, actually to commence the debate on the carbon tax repeal package of legislation. We want to debate. We want to canvass the issues. We want to talk about this. Yet the opposition and the Australian Greens are seeking to deny the Senate that opportunity through their tawdry behaviour on the environment committee of the Senate.

This motion to suspend standing orders should not be required. Sadly, it is. It should be supported.