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

Because of how the opposition have conducted themselves, Senator Abetz has been put in the position where he is seeking to suspend standing orders so that he can move a rearrangement of business—and it is a very modest rearrangement of business. It seeks to have one bill debate—one bill—and those opposite cannot even bring themselves to allow the government of the day to have one bill debated on the last sitting day of the year. That is how low they have sunk.

This is a very modest proposition to rearrange business—to suspend standing orders so that Senator Abetz can move a motion to debate the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014. That is what this procedural motion is about. It is the government seeking to make up for the acts of those opposite to deny the government of the day the opportunity to debate in an orderly fashion its legislative program. Indeed, we even saw in non-controversial business time today the opposition undertaking filibusters.