Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to say that the Australian Greens won't be supporting the government in bringing on this bill by extending hours. We don't agree that this is urgent. We have been participating in discussions in relation to this and looking at the bill very carefully. We all know that it's been sitting on the Notice Paper for a long time and we also know that there has been a case of the boy who cried wolf several times with the urgency of this. It was urgent in June and it was urgent in August; it's now apparently urgent in September. If it didn't happen today or next week, it would be urgent again in October. No, it's not. What is more urgent and more important is to make sure we get it right. I don't think that having a massive whack at our public broadcasters and the ABC is in any way something that should be fast-tracked or, indeed, done at a minute to midnight. That, Mr President, is what will happen if, of course, this hours motion goes ahead.

I have more to say on the bill, of course, when we get into debate. Suffice to say, the Greens don't buy the argument that this is urgent today.