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

Again, whether it is speeches on legislation or whether it is the handling of questions in question time or whether it is across a whole range of areas, we are making arrangements procedurally to ensure that this place can still get the business of the nation done, and this part of the day, quite frankly, was inappropriately interrupting getting the business of the nation done. There is nothing unusual in putting some frameworks and processes and disciplines in place, and, as Senator Birmingham also rightly pointed out, in drafting this motion the government and the opposition have been incredibly courteous and respectful to the crossbench because we are giving the crossbench a disproportionate amount of opportunity to move formal motions. If it was reflected purely on proportionality grounds—purely on the grounds of how many senators are represented in this chamber as a result of the election by the Australian people—you would have fewer opportunities to move motions without debate.

I understand that, for political purposes, it suits crossbenchers on occasions to move motions where they don't want to have a debate where the details can be nuanced and fleshed out in a properly argued argument. Maybe sometimes there is a political interest in trying to simplify things into yes and no. But, to be honest, the nation is not in a better space the day after those sorts of motions are dealt with when they can't actually be dealt with by yes and no.

This formal motions space was there for a particular purpose. It has been used and abused. It was in need of reform. This is a temporary measure. It is a measure that we are putting in place until the end of the sittings in May 2021. The Procedure Committee will have the opportunity to review the operation of the new arrangements, and of course motions on legislation and motions in relation to committee business are excluded.

The fundamental point that I'll repeat again is that there is no limit to the amount of motions that you can put forward, but there will be a limit to the amount of motions that you can bring to this floor for them to be dealt with without debate and without being able to amend them unless you have the leave of every single senator in this chamber. We think it is a sensible reform to try and improve the operation of that part of the day. Let's just remind ourselves we are here to get the business of the nation done. We're not here to waste our time playing politics.