Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I want to place on record the chaotic management of this chamber by the Abbott government. The opposition well, in a constructive approach, agree to this extension of hours, but I want to make the point that we have seen incompetence and chaos from the government in its management of its legislative program through the Senate since they came to government and it is worsening for all to see in this last week. In fact, Senator Faulkner made the point that this is probably the worse performance by a government since Federation when it comes to managing the legislative program in the Senate. It really has come to a head in the last 24 hours when the government has been unable to identify its legislative priorities for the Senate's remaining few sitting days this year.

Nine days ago I wrote to Senator Abetz seeking confirmation of the government's priorities and their plans for the sitting days for the remainder of 2014. There was no reply. Then, with three sitting days left, the government suddenly sprang into action and we had no less than three meetings in Senator Abetz's office but it was not action; it was more like a shemozzle. We had three meetings, and we had the government leader unable to advise the opposition and the crossbench of the government's priorities in terms of legislation. We had three different versions of the list of priority bills put in front of us, which kept changing.

We have a government that cannot even identify its own priorities and cannot work with the other parties in this chamber, and then it seeks to blame the other members of the Senate for its own incompetence. We have a government that seems to take the view that coming into the Senate at the last minute seeking to up-end the arrangement of business is the way forward. Of course, senators know that the chaos that we are seeing in these last few days is not an aberration; it is a standard operating procedure in the Senate under the Abbott government. We have seen countless suspensions of standing orders, rearrangements of business and declarations of urgency brought on in this chamber without notice by the manager—

Senator Bushby interjecting—

They are interjecting because they do not like it when this is pointed out to them. If they want to talk about notice, how often do they come in without notice, once they have a deal, and up-end the chamber? As recently as yesterday afternoon, we had the government saying, 'We don't want to debate the higher education bill' and told us that they wanted to do something completely different. And now they want to debate the higher education bill. They are chopping and changing depending on where the negotiations are. We have also seen a government that has squandered hours of time on political point-scoring rather than progressing its own bills. There have been a number of occasions when the government could have been dealing with its own legislation but it chose instead to chew up hours of time playing politics. Who can forget the filibuster on its own legislation, and who can forget Senator Macdonald speaking against the government's own budget measures?

We also had the government complaining about aspects of the budget which have not been passed but which have not yet been introduced the legislation into the parliament—such as the GP tax and paid parental leave. None of those have been introduced into the parliament. So when people hear this government complaining about the Senate obstructing its agenda let us remember that, firstly, around 140 bills have been passed by this chamber since the change of government; secondly, even the Treasurer, Joe Hockey, says that most of the budget has been passed; and thirdly, this government is refusing even to bring into parliament some of its controversial measures. And we have seen in this last fortnight two ministers in this chamber censured by the Senate—the first time in a decade that that has occurred. We have seen an Assistant Treasurer sent on fishing leave for over eight months with no replacement appointed and the Minister for Finance still the acting Assistant Treasurer, and we have seen the Minister for Defence agree that his own statements were amongst the stupidest ever made by a senior minister.

The fact is that the government has shown a complete incapacity to manage the chamber. The opposition, in the interests of being constructive, will support this extension of hours today. We will also—and I place this on the record—give up our debating time and not proceed with the matter of public importance if the government will proceed with finalising the debate on the higher education bill. If the government cannot manage its program, then I guess the opposition and the crossbenchers will have to help them out. That is what we are doing by giving up this time. I invite people, when they hear Senator Abetz complaining about the crossbenchers, to have a look at Senator Leyonhjelm's comments today. I think they were most instructive.