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

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave granted.

What has happened here in the 20 or so minutes before now is simply a matter of the Senate indicating its will on a matter, and what the Senate has indicated is that it wishes to have more time to debate this legislation.

Senator McAllister interjecting—

Mr President, I'll take the interjection from Senator McAllister. The will of the Senate has been expressed, and the government alone does not have the numbers in this place. Crossbench colleagues indicated that they desired to have additional time to consider this legislation. That is something that the government took into consideration; hence, Senator Cormann sought leave to move his motion in order to allow a substantive motion to provide additional time. This is a case of the government listening to what crossbenchers, in good faith, have expressed, of it putting that matter to the Senate and the Senate deciding that there should be additional time. That is what happened. As we see time and time again, those opposite are always happy to crow about the will of the Senate right up until the point that the Senate doesn't agree with them. Then the will of the Senate doesn't seem to count for much.

This is important legislation; we all recognise it's important legislation. We want to make sure that there are appropriate and reasonable safeguards, and the Senate has expressed its will that the time should be taken to make sure that that is the case. There should be no doubt at all about the desire of this government, the desire of this parliament, the desire of both chambers, to ensure that students are not ever placed in a situation where a school would see them not continue. We are all agreed with that. But it is important that there are appropriate safeguards for school institutions, so that they can go about their business, as we would all want them to. That is why Senator Cormann moved the motion that he did—in order to ensure that the Senate has the opportunity to properly discharge its responsibilities to examine the legislation carefully.