Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise with, I'm sure, the agreement of the Deputy Government Whip, Senator Ciccone, over there that there's no greater joy in the Senate than rising, impromptu, with a couple of minutes of notice, to fill in the gap when senators' statements don't go for quite as long as they should. It's truly one of the great things we do in this place. I'm enjoying it today. I'm standing here to grab that extra 1½ minutes that was not used by other senators.

During this time I'd like to talk about what didn't happen yesterday. It was not transmission Tuesday. It was so disappointing for me. I tried to get a question up in question time about the hypocrisy of not coming here to talk about loss of native habitat for one thing or the other, but not for anything we want to talk about on loss of native habitat. That was quite disappointing for me, but there's a process you have to go through. For those listening at home, when you're part of a party you have to submit a question, which is considered by people who decide if it will be asked during question time. Senator Antic has submitted many fine questions that never see the light of day. He is the JK Rowling of unpublished questions over on this side. We are sitting here now, grabbing this time, filling in just another 21 seconds—