Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

In moving the third reading of this bill, may I thank all senators who have participated in this debate for their contributions. This, it is fair to say, has been a rather lengthy debate. Obviously, the government is of the view that this is a very important reform for Australia. It is a reform which will help ensure that future Senate election results truly reflect the will of the Australian people. It is a reform which will empower voters to direct their preferences according to their wishes instead of having them traded and directed by backroom operators in political parties through insufficiently transparent group voting ticket arrangements.

I thank the Senate for the work over what has been a debate that has been going for nearly 39 hours since the message of the House of Representatives was received on 29 February 2016. I believe that that is the seventh longest debate on any piece of legislation since 1990. We have, of course, over the past 20 or so hours had a very intensive continuous debate on this legislation, taking us to this point today. I would like to pay particular tribute to the very active participants in this debate tonight: senators Wong and Collins, senators Di Natale and Rhiannon and also senators Xenophon, Leyonhjelm, Day and Muir, who have all made a very active contribution and put effort into drafting amendments to improve the bill in the ways that they saw fit. The Senate has made a judgement in relation to the form of the bill that should go forward. The government supports the final form of this bill. We will be supporting the bill, as amended by the Senate, in the House of Representatives. This will mean that, for any future election after 1 July 2016, these will be the voting arrangements that will apply for the Australian Senate. That is a good thing because it means that people across Australia will be able to determine what happens to their vote. I thank the Senators for their support for this important government proposal.