Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

Omit all words after "That", substitute:

"so much of standing order 3(4) be suspended to enable the Senate to consider the following business before the address-in-reply to the Governor-General's opening speech has been adopted:

(a) business other than that of a formal character (excluding government business); and

(b) government business relating to the consideration of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More Of Their Money) Bill 2019."

In effect, this requires, firstly, that the government will ensure that the first order of government business will be the tax bills and, secondly, that the government will need the agreement of the Senate to proceed with other bills before finalising the address-in-reply, which I think on the last occasion took two years. I would make the point that the government has flagged medevac legislation.

An honourable senator: Hear, hear!

Hear, hear! This amendment would ensure that the Senate would have to give the government permission to bring in that legislation before it is debated and voted upon. I would also make the point—and this is something the Labor Party is concerned about—that the government today flagged via the Governor-General's speech industrial relations legal changes, which I do not recall them campaigning on in the election, for which they have no mandate. We do not intend to give the government a leave pass in bringing that legislation forward.