Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—Imagine the Labor-Greens outrage if a coalition government had sought to axe one week of the traditional four weeks of Senate estimates. Imagine the even greater outrage if this was done, along with other unprecedented changes to the sitting schedule, without any consultation having occurred across the chamber. The outrage would have been off the Richter scale from Labor and the Greens. While we have seen in question time yesterday and today Senator Wong show a level of outrage at being questioned over the sitting schedule, I welcome this tweak, as the Manager of Government Business has described it, to the government's program. That's more than a tweak. Let me welcome this backflip and capitulation by the government to reinstate the four weeks of Senate estimates. They should never have sought to axe it. The attempt to axe a week of Senate estimates was clearly—