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

If you listen to the contributions from the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Greens you could be forgiven for thinking that never in their time in office—never during the period that they were in coalition—did they put forward time management motions. But I can remember very clearly time management motions from Senator Ludwig. I remember very clearly time management motions from Senator Collins. In fact, Senator Collins started to develop the nickname 'the queen of the guillotine', so often did she seeks to deploy time management motions.

The reason the government is seeking to use this procedure in this place is because, with the exception of the carbon tax repeal legislation, there has been no package of legislation regarding which the Australian Labor Party has sought to defy the will of the Australian people on more occasions than the MRRT package of legislation. The Australian public were very clear at the last election on what they wanted in relation to the carbon tax and the MRRT. We are merely seeking to give effect to the will of the Australian people as expressed at the ballot box. That is what we are seeking to do here. The Australian Labor Party have thwarted every attempt of the government to do that. It is worth noting that there has, in fact, been 34 hours of debate on the repeal of the MRRT, as opposed to 30 hours of debate on the imposition of the MRRT. There has been more debate about repealing that which the Australian Labor Party put in than was provided for its imposition. This procedural motion should be supported.