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

If I could speak: essentially, the reason I think we need to pause for a moment is that the chair of the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee, Senator Pratt, was interjecting during the division to our side of the chamber that the intention was to refer this bill to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. I think there are several of our senators on this side who very clearly heard Senator Pratt, who is the chair of the references committee, point out to the chamber that it was not going to her committee but was going, as it should appropriately, to the legislation committee. If it was the intention of the opposition to initiate a referral to the references committee then I find that very, very disappointing, indeed, because instead of resolving legislation in the usual way this is essentially further politicising something that should be managed in a consensus fashion, which is what the government is prepared to do. This is legislation. It should appropriately go to a legislation committee, and that is of course what Senator Pratt, the chair of the references committee seemed to think. I understood, based on previous discussions among parties, that the question was whether it should go to the education legislation committee or to the legal and constitutional legislation committee, but I think there was some Labor Party initiated confusion in relation to this.