Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—The government does support what this legislation is seeking to achieve, but it supports it with reasonable amendments to ensure that, for example, religious schools can provide appropriate rules for the proper conduct of their schools. The government put forward five very sensible amendments. Some of the crossbenchers indicated to us, in good faith, that they needed some more time to consider the issues that they raised.

Rather than doing what Senator Wong has indicated—up-ending the Senate—what we are doing is making sure that the Senate has the proper opportunity to consider all of the issues, which is actually its job. What was in place was a guillotine to prevent the Senate from properly considering all of the issues. We are actually, as a government, facilitating the proper consideration of what is a very important issue. We do want to see this legislation passed, but we want to see it passed in an amended form. We thank the Senate for having made a sensible decision today and for having backed our judgement.