Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I have a few observations to make in relation to the program having changed on a few occasions over the last day or two. I should indicate, and it is probably well known to colleagues in this place, that some of those rearrangements have been at the request of ministers, some of the rearrangements have been at the request of the Labor Party and some have been at the request of the Greens. I cannot recall if there have been any at the request of crossbenchers, so I will not make that statement.

I will just indicate, as I often say, that management of this chamber is a collective exercise, given there is no one grouping in this place that has the numbers. From time to time, there will be requests from different groupings to reorder the business. Sometimes, absolutely, it is at the request of the government on the basis of individual ministers, but certainly at other times it is at the request of other groupings in this place. I just make that as a statement of fact. I would also indicate that this week there have been a couple of meetings of leaders, whips and managers, which involve those officeholders as well as all crossbench senators, and this motion is really the distillation of the range of views that were expressed around the table. I do not indicate by that that there was unanimous agreement but certainly this motion is the product of those discussions.

Question agreed to.