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

It has taken five full days for the government to come up with a proposal on how to get this bill through, demonstrating clearly it has been lacking leadership all week. Given that it's 82 years since a government tried to function with only four Senate ministers, half of whom have been absent for most of the week, will the minister commit to asking the Prime Minister to promote some of the Labor senators languishing on the backbench? Perhaps Senator McAllister, who has done most of the work for the government this week, could replace the hapless Stephen Jones. There's one suggestion.