Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition won't be supporting this select committee. Normally we do work collaboratively with all senators in this place around the establishment of committees and referrals to committees. We were advised by the government that they are concerned at the number of select committees that are currently operating in the Senate and at the level of work that references committees have—that select committees are perhaps filling part of the role that references committees had in the past—only to be given this motion on the Notice Paper. So we won't be supporting this today, based on the government's own advice that there are too many select committees at this point in time.