George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion to vary the hours of meeting and the routine of business for today.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice standing in my name, I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to provide that a motion relating to the hours of meeting and routine of business for today may be moved immediately and determined without amendment or debate.

The purpose of this motion is to enable the final consideration and passage this week of the Native Title Amendment (Indigenous Land Use Agreements) Bill 2017. As honourable senators are aware, that is the government bill that is currently being debated by the chamber, but it does appear from the state of the speakers list that, unless there were to be an accommodation and a variation, there is no practical possibility that the native title bill could be finally dealt with and disposed of this week. As we know, if the bill is not dealt with this week, then the soonest it can be finally dealt with and passed is in the week commencing on Tuesday, 13 June—that is, in more than a month's time.

I want to acknowledge that Senator Dodson, in his contribution on the second reading debate yesterday, made it clear that the Labor Party would support the bill and support the government amendments to the bill, and that has been confirmed as well by the shadow Attorney-General, who is the shadow minister responsible for the bill on behalf of the opposition, Mr Dreyfus. So we are not now discussing whether or not the bill should be passed. We are not dealing with the merits. We are dealing with whether or not the bill should be disposed of or finally dealt with this week.

We ask the opposition's support in relation to this, because the opposition has made it very clear, as recently as a letter sent to me by the shadow Attorney-General overnight, that its position was that it would facilitate the swift passage of the bill in this sittings. Those are Mr Dreyfus's words, repeated on several occasions—that the opposition will facilitate the swift passage of the bill in this sittings. As honourable senators know, there are only three sitting weeks in this sitting period, because the fortnight that would otherwise be a sitting fortnight is devoted to estimates. Of those three sitting weeks, two of them are short weeks—this week and the next sitting week, which does not begin until Tuesday 13 June. So the government's position is very simple: if the opposition is going to be faithful to its undertaking to the government to facilitate the swift passage of the bill in this sitting period, the swift passage of the bill means dealing with the bill as soon as practicably possible. The government listed this bill for debate yesterday, as government item of business No. 2. We have begun the debate, but because of the number of senators who wish to participate it will not be possible to dispose of the bill today unless there are additional hours. So the government is proposing that if—and only if—the bill is not finally dealt with today, the Senate sit tomorrow.

Since the decision of the Federal Court in the McGlade case—which this bill seeks to deal with the consequences of—came down on 2 February this year, we have been urged, in particular by the Indigenous leadership of the country, to deal with this matter as a matter of urgency, and we have. We introduced a bill into the House of Representatives to deal with it only a fortnight after the McGlade decision came down, and it passed through the House of Representatives on the last sitting day of the previous sitting period. There has been extensive consultation during the Easter recess, including a very large stakeholder consultation meeting on 27 May attended by the opposition, including Senator Dodson. So we are discharging our commitment to native title holders to deal with the matter as a matter of urgency, as they have requested us to do; we ask the opposition to keep their promise to facilitate the swift passage of the bill.