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

The purpose of seeking an exemption from the cut-off is so that a particular bill can be dealt with in the current sitting. You may have noticed, Mr President, that, if you look at the red, those opposite have prevented this chamber making orderly progress through the bills listed on the red. What we sought earlier today in housekeeping, in the ordinary course of events, was for the cut-off to be exempted for a number of bills, and those opposite—I am speaking now in relation to the list of non-controversial bills—decided, like everything else this week, that they would be, and I think the technical term is, bloody minded. Those opposite denied leave for an exemption from the cut-off for even non-controversial bills. What we are seeking to do here is—hopefully, we have been successful—to exempt a couple of bills from the cut-off so they can be dealt with in the current sitting. Whether that happens or not is entirely dependent on whether those opposite continue to filibuster—as they are currently doing on the message from the House in relation to the electoral matters bill. They have been going for six, eight, nine hours, speaking to the message from the other place to do with the electoral matters bill.

If ever there was a concrete example of filibustering and sheer bloody mindedness we have seen it over the last day and a half. So no pious lectures from those opposite, we are simply endeavouring to engage in what are usually routine procedural matters so that we can deal with business in an orderly way. I will conclude my remarks here, so that we can get on with business.