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

The suspension of standing orders that Senator Brandis has moved is to enable a substantive motion that would see the orderly attention brought to bear on important legislation.

I must, at this point, touch on something that Senator Cormann raised—that is, the concept of zombie measures. We know that those opposite have been saying that there are certain measures that never had a prospect of passage and, therefore, they were zombie measures. They know those so-called zombies well; they know them intimately. That is why it is more than a little surprising when colleagues on the opposite side of the chamber are saying: 'Oh, we have never met these measures before. These are actually newborns. These are newborn measures. No, no, we know we said they were zombies before, but they have transmogrified into newborns.' So, that is a little unusual.

Those opposite say they do not know what the measures are in the legislation that is coming to us. They have no idea what the elements are of the measures that are coming to this place. But, despite the fact that they supposedly have no idea about them, they say they will oppose them. In fact, Senator Gallagher, the Manager of Opposition Business, said, 'We have prevented these changes every step of the way.' How do you prevent changes if you do not know what they are?

I am having a little bit of difficulty finding the line through the arguments of those opposite, but, anyway, there we have it. I should also note that those opposite—in fact, I think the Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate, Senator Gallagher said that we have run off to the crossbench. We are meant to fold up our tent every time the Australian Labor Party say that they are opposed to a proposition. We are meant to say: 'Look, there is the possibility of getting it through the Senate. There is the possibility of talking to other colleagues.' But, no, we should not do that, because we do not want to hurt the feelings of those opposite! We see a bit of that: hurt feelings in this place. Whenever the government combines with another grouping in this place there is always another grouping that acts a little hurt and spurned, feeling, 'What is wrong with us?' On this occasion it is the Labor Party who are saying, 'What about me?'—to quote that great Australian song. Those opposite have counted themselves out. One of the reasons we talk to the crossbench is that first and foremost they have been duly elected by the Australian people. They are here as representatives, so it is appropriate that we deal with them. But the other reason we talk with the crossbench is that they are willing to talk, they are willing to engage and they are willing to be constructive. That is why we are very happy to talk with and to work with the Senate crossbench.

I think it was Senator Wong in her opening contribution who suggested that somehow what we are seeking to do is anything other than orderly. What we are wanting to do is enable an open-ended debate that will sit till midnight—Senate willing—until this is dealt with. If it is not dealt with by midnight then we will do the same on Thursday and we will come back on Friday. There is no guillotine here. There is no curtailment of debate. We are seeking to provide the opportunity to have a debate so that these measures, which are so well known by those opposite, can be aired and debated. Despite the fact that they are already well known, we want to provide as much opportunity as the Senate wants in order to address these issues. We think that is orderly, we think that is appropriate and we think that is a very good thing.

I hope the Senate will agree to support the suspension of standing orders so that Senator Brandis can move his substantive motion so that Senator Cormann will then have the opportunity to introduce this important legislation. This Senate is working constructively, and we are very hopeful that today will be yet another example of how the Australian Senate is working and doing the peoples' business. (Time expired)