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

I welcome the opportunity to speak briefly to this motion, and the opposition will be supporting it. This motion will deal with a part of the program that, as the Leader of the Government has outlined, has been dysfunctional and divisive every single day that I have been in this place, and it is getting worse. It is also an issue that's been on the agenda of the procedure committee, for discussion and reform, for the entire time I've been in this place, because it constantly gets raised as a dysfunctional and divisive part of the program that doesn't work. This proposal actually gives more senators the opportunity to speak—60 new speaking spots a week—and senators have unlimited opportunity to put in motions. These are 60 spots to raise issues on behalf of your community or issues that matter to you, on a daily basis, that can be raised in this chamber and dealt with.