Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

tor BIRMINGHAM (—) (): Let me deal firstly with the specific facts in relation to the motion. Senator Wong carefully worded her question and asked why the government refused to pass the motion, not why the government opposed the motion. That is of course because the motion itself was never actually put to the chamber. The motion itself was not put to the chamber because the government, as we have consistently done since the temporary orders in relation to motions were put through this chamber, opposed an attempt to vary the order of business at the commencement of proceedings. I believe we have consistently done that each and every time there has been a move to do so since the change of those temporary orders. That is simply the government's position in relation to the way in which Senate business is managed.

Had the opposition sought by other means to raise those issues then no doubt the government would have been in a position to consider the motion on its merits. In terms of the content of the motion, I say that the government does condemn all acts of extremism and violence and the government does condemn acts that seek to incite violence in any way towards any of those engaged in our public debate, towards any of those engaged in public service and towards any Australians going about their ordinary lives in a peaceful way. Can I say on such a topic that in this place the content, the tone and the manner in which we all engage are important. Much of the debate this week seems to have centred around issues of extremism but also personal attacks around this chamber or across the parliamentary body. They do not help to elevate the debate. They do not help us to stay on the issues. (Time expired)