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

Senator Hanson, I want to follow up on one of the things you said. I would first make the point that the reason we have done it as an amendment rather than a motion is that the government can ignore a motion but it can't ignore a piece of law. That is the logic of it. You have raised that with me, and I think that is a consistent position. Why don't we do it as a notice of motion? The reality is that the minister can just ignore a notice of motion whereas you can't ignore the law—one hopes! Secondly, I don't recall the minister ever having said before what she is now saying, which is that the government is not in a position to reverse the lease on the Port of Darwin.

Senator Payne interjecting—

I'm sure that was the advice. No, I'm not pushing back on it; everyone has hedged it when we have asked it; everyone else has ducked that question. I would like to understand why. This legislation is in effect retrospective—that is, you can veto, under this legislation, deals which were previously made. I think that's pretty clear. Obviously, the Port of Darwin is such a deal. It may be that because the Port of Darwin arrangement is with an ostensibly private entity it is outside of the bill. If that's the case, I would like to understand that. These are the issues that we traversed in the Senate committee. I don't think they were clarified. It would be useful to clarify it here.