Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to speak in opposition to that amendment regarding the religious discrimination bills. It is quite outrageous that here are we, the Senate, the house of review—we have a Senate legislation committee that is set up to have legislation referred to it—and the government is explicitly saying that an incredibly far-reaching bill that would have an impact on people right across the country, a bill that would increase discrimination rather than reduce it, is not being referred to committee. Of course, I have an alternative amendment to the selection of bills to once again say that we should be referring the religious discrimination bill to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. It's a government controlled committee. It's not as if it's anything extraordinary. It is just what the government should be doing. We want a referral to the Senate Legal and—