Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The chaos with which this motion to vary hours has been moved today leading to this debate is symptomatic of the chaotic approach this government have taken to education funding in general—from the way the deal has been dripped out, to the way they avoided going through education stakeholders and dripped out incorrect information to schools, to the way they have treated senators and MPs with contempt with the information they have been prepared to provide. They have provided some info to some senators and none to others, refusing to provide information.

Now we have had the Leader of the Government in the Senate come in here and move a motion that seeks to gag any debate on whether or not we should allow this motion to be moved, only then to be rebuked by the Nick Xenophon Team and told, 'If you don't allow a debate on this, presumably something else is going to happen, like withdrawal of support for the hours motion.' Then we saw the Leader of the Government in the Senate jump to his feet and say: 'Oh, whoops! Sorry about that. We will let you speak just for a minute before we push this through.' It is not the way to run a chamber.

This past sitting fortnight the opposition have worked cooperatively with the government. We have passed a number of bills. We passed 18 bills last week and another 20 this week. Then, as soon as we get to a point where we have some issues, this kind of approach is taken by the government—ram it through and punish those who have actually been working with them to get particular legislation through this place. And they are asking us to stay here without any information on the bill that is presumably going to have amendments made to it in the Senate. So we are all meant to hang around like we did last time, with the government enabled by the crossbench as usual. Every time the government want their way, they go and walk the corridors and get the crossbench to jump. The crossbench say: 'Extra hours? Yep, no worries.' It is always locked in. One Nation is always happy to assist. Senator Hinch is always happy to assist. And, more often than not, the Nick Xenophon Team are happy to assist as well.

Meanwhile, let's remember what happened with the business tax cut, the enterprise tax plan. We all sat around. I remember the day very well. I brought my bad hair to work that day. That day $19 billion, I think, passed through in about 20 minutes of debate after sitting here for hours and hours while the government tried to get their act together. I am presuming that is what is behind this motion too—that they do not have a deal or they might have a deal but they have not worked it out and they do not want to go home until they do have a deal. That is regardless of the fact that the department itself said there was no pressure to pass this legislation in this sitting and that it was desirable to have the new arrangements in place at the beginning of the spring sitting in August. That was the department's own advice in their submission—there is no rush. But this government want their way regardless of the conventions and appropriate conduct of this chamber, which is to allow for scrutiny. It is scrutiny of what at this point? What are we going to scrutinise? Does anyone have any information on what we will be scrutinising? Are we going to do it the same way? Will we have hours and hours of the government filibustering and trying to keep the debate going while other people are off trying to seal the deal and then, when the deal is brought in here, it will be rushed through in some government speech and we will all vote on it? Is there no need for the Senate to provide that scrutiny role?

We had the absurd situation yesterday where the government nearly ran out of business because they are so hopeless at managing their program. The only people who have been filibustering in this chamber have been from the government because the government cannot get their act together on legislation and finalise the arrangements for the education deal. The crossbench enable them every time. They do not have too. The department has said this legislation does not needs to be dealt with yet, that it is desirable for it to be dealt with in the first part of the spring sitting. Yet we are all here because the government have snapped their fingers and said they need extra hours. They cannot manage their program and they cannot finalise their arrangements, and enough of the crossbench are going to enable that to occur. Meanwhile, every kid in every school in every system is going to suffer for it.