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

Let's remember: this minister brought this bill, or a substantially similar bill, in in March 2016. Guess how many times that bill has been listed for debate? That bill has been listed for debate on no less than 10 occasions—and there's still no vote. They couldn't get the numbers on it and couldn't get a deal. So he then went away and put substantially the same content into a new bill, called the broadcasting reform bill—the core of which, in terms of media ownership, is substantially the same—and added a couple of new measures. On how many occasions has that bill been listed for debate in the House or the Senate? On no less than 10 occasions also. This is the Manager of Government Business in the Senate. That is how he's running his legislative agenda.

Senator Ian Macdonald interjecting—

I could give a speech, and I'm sure we could all have a discussion about media reform, but Labor has made its position very clear. What I am saying is that this government is unable to manage its program. At 6.32 pm we had another change in the program for a bill that, as I said, has been before the House or the Senate and debated 10 times—and, before that, the preceding bill, with substantially the same content, was also debated some 10 times. So what happens? We get a filibuster. When they send Senator Macdonald in, you can always tell that the filibuster is on. He gets rolled out and there's a big neon sign: 'Senator Ian Macdonald is on his feet, so therefore the filibuster is on.' But now they've decided that even that is too embarrassing. They didn't want to get further into the second reading debate and decided that, after the dinner break, they'd rock up and rearrange the order of business, because they haven't got the numbers.

This is no way to run the Senate. I say to the Manager of Government Business in the Senate that, if he comes in here tomorrow or Wednesday—

Senator Ian Macdonald interjecting—

Senator Macdonald, you're not in your seat, so I'm raising a point of order about you maybe wanting to get into your seat before you want to interrupt me again.