Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

As the Greens well know and people in this chamber know, Labor has the same longstanding position that important, complex and contested issues of foreign policy should not be taken up as the matter of a formal motion. Senator Ludlam has actually attempted to turn the notice-of-motion process into a debate. That is not a full debate, and we should not use this mechanism to have such an important issue discussed and debated in this place. In view of our longstanding position, Mr President, we support the government's position on this. This is not the way to treat such an issue.