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

I do want to acknowledge, at the outset, that over the past couple of weeks there has been cooperation from the different groupings in this chamber at different times. I acknowledge that the Manager of Opposition Business facilitated the passage of some non-controversial legislation in the last week by forgoing general business time. I put that on the record and acknowledge that. As I often say in this place, in a chamber where the government of the day does not have a majority in its own right, management of the chamber and of legislation is a shared responsibility of all groupings in this place. On different occasions different groupings in this place accept that responsibility and assist the government. That is something that we very much appreciate.

What we sought to do earlier this week, and were successful in doing, was provide for additional hours that gave colleagues the opportunity to contribute to the debate. Again, through seeking a suspension of standing orders, if successful, the motion that Senator Brandis would move would facilitate contributions from colleagues. We are not seeking to curtail debate, as previous governments have done, by seeking to guillotine legislation. There was a very famous occasion under the previous government when 54 bills were guillotined in rapid succession with no provision for debate on bills. We are not seeking to guillotine. We are merely seeking to ensure that we do have the capacity is a chamber to deal with the legislation that I think we would all agree we need to resolve one way or another before the Senate rises for the year.

The proposition that Senator Brandis would move is that if we have not dealt with the ABCC legislation and also the backpacker legislation and the passenger movement charge legislation by 12.45 we would sit tonight until they are dealt with. This really is a contingency in the event that we have not dealt with that legislation by 12.45. I think there are reasonable prospects that the ABCC legislation could be dealt with by 12.45, and possibly even the backpacker package of legislation. We are not seeking to sit into the wee small hours tonight. I do not think that will be necessary, but this is a contingency should we need additional time. I should also point out—because I know Senator Birmingham would be extremely disappointed if I did not—that this will also mean that we can get to the VET student loan legislation perhaps a little more quickly.

We have, as a government, endeavoured to really focus in this last sitting period on legislation that is essential to deal with, and all of it is listed on the red today. That is the totality of what we are seeking to do. We are not seeking an opportunity to in any way force things through this place; we are trying to limit ourselves to that which really needs to be done. Senator Wong, in her contribution, asked why we had not listed other legislation in the motion that Senator Brandis would like to move. The reason for that is we did not want to build into this motion more than we thought was necessary. I am confident that if we deal with the ABCC legislation and the backpacker's package today we will, through cooperation tomorrow, be able to deal with what remains on the legislative program. I encourage my colleagues to agree to the suspension of standing orders so that Senator Brandis can move his substantive motion, which, as I say, is a contingency in the event that we need a bit more time to conclude these two important packages of legislation.