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

The Manager of Opposition Business should not necessarily take at face value what Ms Macklin tells her. The government was very prepared to alter the legislation in the Senate in such a way to give effect to the will of the Australian Labor Party. There were elements in the social services package of bills that both the government and the opposition agreed upon and, indeed, the opposition circulated amendments to give effect to the removal of those parts that they did not support. We would have accepted that. However, the opposition did not allow the bill to proceed beyond the second readers. Ms Macklin has fabricated this story that somehow we were not willing to give effect to that which they wanted to achieve. We were; but they were—I think the technical term is—bloody-minded.