Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against the suspension of standing orders for a very simple reason: we do not know what the deal is. We do not know what the policy is. We do not know what changes the government is proposing. All we know is what Senator Xenophon said in a contribution to the committee debate about what concessions he says he has got in order to sell out South Australian schools. That is all we know. But what the government is seeking—I say to the crossbench, you ought not participate in this—is for the Senate to proceed on a debate on a bill until conclusion, before they have even told us what the bill contains and what the policy is. So it is a very simple proposition: the Senate ought not be, at short notice—