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

I rise in the committee stage to make a few comments on the Regional Investment Corporation Bill 2017 and to perhaps make a broader point about the management of the government's business program. If we use this bill as an example, we have seen over the last two days this bill move up the program and down the program a bit yesterday, and then start listed in third place for bills today and be moved up to first position at the last minute before the program was printed. We saw the ridiculous position of bringing a bill on for debate and then having government members filibustering on that bill for at least four hours on a Monday, which is the day, one would presume, the government would like to progress through their legislative program promptly—that is, if they actually wanted bills passed.

The point I'd like to make is that I think it's disrespectful to the crossbench managing the program this way—putting bills on and off, moving them up the program, making these changes, filibustering and bringing it back on for debate this morning. We hear that there are government amendments that may be moved. We haven't seen any of those. We don't know if there are actually any government amendments; we hear rumours circulating that there are, but we haven't seen them. The expectation by the government is, presumably, that we should just be able to process these amendments, form positions on them, debate them, ask questions on them and deal with them without any notice at all. I guess, in general, the government cannot manage its program, and that has been exemplified by the management of this bill.

If, come Wednesday night or Thursday, there are a whole range of bills that the government do want progressed, I would draw their attention to the fact that they have used up the majority of their government business time on Monday actually filibustering their own bill. The opposition will not be disposed positively towards any extension or any motion by the government seeking to extend hours to deal with bills because they have failed miserably to manage this bill in an orderly way that respects other people in this chamber. For the crossbench and for the opposition, it means we have to ensure that people are ready with speeches at a time when the bill might be on, even though it might not be on, it might be pulled halfway or it might come back on without notice.

Now, we get the fact that the government needs to change its program from time to time. We are sympathetic to the reality of running a program, but this is becoming standard practice. It's not something that happens rarely, happens only in exceptional circumstances or happens when there are legitimate reasons; it is happening every business day and it is happening every sitting week. I see that the government amendments now have been circulated, but we're at the point in time when senators are expected to debate these amendments and, presumably, vote on them without any opportunity to discuss them more thoroughly and form a position on them. So, that's the point I'd make.

I hope that the manager of government business is listening because I am making this point not just on this bill but on the management of the government program as a whole. I think you can just look at the amount of time that the Senate is having to sit extended hours to deal with the mismanagement of the government and how it approaches its discussions around getting legislation through this Senate.