Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I was talking this morning with Senator Cormann and Senator Birmingham and we were speculating as to what stunt the opposition might pull today. I made the prediction that they would move a precedence motion. The only thing I got wrong was that I thought those opposite would do it first-up this morning and not after private senators' business time. While those opposite are predictable, I have got to say, it is hard to follow their thinking over the last week and the start of this week.

Last week, those opposite, when it came to personal tax relief for the nation, were using every procedural mechanism and manoeuvre they possibly could to prevent us dealing with that legislation. Every possible manoeuvre, they tried. Now all of a sudden, today, we have those opposite taking the exact opposite approach—that being, to seek to up-end government business in order to alter the arrangement that we have on the Notice Paper.

It is the convention in this place that the government of the day determines the order of government business. That's something that was the convention when those opposite were on these benches and it's the case today. The government of the day determines the program; that is what the convention is. We do have, on the agenda here, a range of government business that we want to transact. Yes, the enterprise tax plan is an important piece of government business but we also have the appropriation bills, the Water Amendment Bill and the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill, so we have a range of important pieces of government business that we wish to transact. What we're seeking to do, by denying leave for Senator Wong to move her motion, is to conduct the business of this place in an orderly fashion. Those opposite, from their own contributions, have clearly been making the point that they're not terribly keen to afford crossbench senators the opportunity to consider, as is laid out in the program, the enterprise tax plan legislation. We think it's appropriate that those colleagues have that opportunity. The government will not be supporting the motion to suspend standing orders for the reasons outlined.