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

President, I'm rising to speak to the amendment as just moved by Senator Chisholm. I want to be clear about the difference before the chamber. As Senator Hume has very clearly outlined, the coalition responded to the pathetic stunt of the Prime Minister in the other place, where he stood there going, 'The Senate's standing in the way of passing these bills; it's standing in the way of Australians getting their tax cuts,' when in reality, as Senator Hume quite rightly pointed out, whether this bill passes today, tomorrow, next week or next month won't make a jot of difference to the fact that no Australian will see any difference from this legislation until after 1 July. So it doesn't matter, actually, when this legislation is dealt with.

The Prime Minister thought he'd be a tough guy and stand there in the House of Representatives' question time and say, 'It's all your fault this is being delayed.' Little did he know, of course, that there were more Labor, Greens and crossbench senators—in fact, there were more crossbench and Greens senators—who'd spoken on the bills than there were coalition senators. So it's far from our fault. I want to be clear that I'm not seeking to cast aspersions on the Greens or crossbenchers who spoke on this. The Prime Minister was the one who wanted to turn this into some sort of tough-guy routine about who was delaying the bills, when it doesn't actually matter which day of the week they pass, because there won't be an effect on the pockets and wallets of Australians until 1 July.

Anyway, if the Prime Minister wanted to play politics with it—because, as Senator Hume quite rightly pointed out, this whole thing has been cooked up around the Dunkley by-election happening on Saturday—then we were happy to call out his politics and indicate that, sure, we'd get this done. That's because actually, on our reading of the Senate, it probably won't take much longer for this legislation to pass. The second reading list has been exhausted, there are a couple of second reading amendments and there are some crossbench amendments. It could probably all be done almost in the time that this debate has gone on. I note that when I moved this motion I sat down without saying a word. It could have been voted on and done, but the government, of course, have to have their way. Senator Gallagher had to speak and filibuster while the government came up with an alternative.

Let's just compare and contrast the alternatives, because this is what the Senate is being asked to vote on. The coalition proposed something that respects all of the Senate business to be conducted today. Nothing, in terms of other business that other senators have planned for, would be disrupted, according to our motion. At the time the Senate would have adjourned, we will instead go back to government business, get the bill done—which may well only take half an hour or so—and then go back to the adjournment debate as scheduled. No senator misses out; no other business is disrupted; every single piece of business gets done.