Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will not be supporting the motion for the suspension of standing orders today. Unfortunately, we have before us a situation where the Greens have once again sought to use the Senate as a means for their political stunts and not for proper debate. As Senator Cormann highlighted, this is the second time we've been faced with a similar attempt today.

The normal practice for the moving of motions in this place is to give notice one sitting day in advance, and this is for a good reason. This is so that all senators are afforded the chance to consider the detail of what they're being asked to vote on. In this case, the motion was only circulated a few minutes before we got to the matter. That process has not been observed in this case, and there is no reasonable argument for this motion to be rushed through the chamber at this stage of the day with less than one hour's notice. There will, of course, be occasions where motions do need to be moved more urgently, but we do not believe that this is one of those occasions.

I need to put on the record that the Labor Party is very concerned that the government has not released this report, a whole five months after it was received. We question what the government has to hide. We believe that Australians should have the opportunity to consider the full report and not just the selections of it that someone has leaked to date. We have asked for this report to be released time and time again. This motion, if the government responds to it and it's dealt with in a timely fashion through Senate processes, may be the last straw that finally convinces the government to produce the report. It's clear what's happening here. There is no doubt that the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is choosing to put his political fortunes front and centre by sitting on the report until the Wentworth by-election this weekend. Mr Morrison knows full well that constituents in the electorate of Wentworth will be very unhappy with what this review appears to contain.

In any case, the opposition respects the procedures of the chamber, and in that context I'll encourage the Greens to observe the proper process: lodge this motion in line with normal Senate practice, and then the opposition can give it the serious consideration that it deserves—tomorrow, for example. Tomorrow we can come into this place and vote, knowing that we have given the motion detailed consideration.