Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion relating to the consideration of the Defence Service Homes Amendment (Insurance) Bill 2025, as circulated.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice standing in the name of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to the consideration of the Defence Service Homes Amendment (Insurance) Bill 2025.

The reason I am doing this is that it's a matter of priority to deal with the legislation I've referred to—that is why we seek to give precedence to this legislation. By way of context, I point to the fact that, by agreement with the government, this bill was exempted from the cut-off, and normally that is a pretty good sign that the government has determined legislation to be important. That is why it is passing strange that the bill is No. 2 on the list. We fear that the government seeks to hold this important legislation, the Defence Service Homes Amendment (Insurance) Bill 2025, to ransom in order to somehow expedite the passage of the Future Made in Australia legislation.

In making the case here, I want to read in its entirety the speech on the bill's second reading by the shadow minister in the other place, Mr Joyce. He said:

I'm not going to yack on for too long. This is pretty straightforward. There has been a review. It has found a potential problem in insurance. You can get a house through the Defence Service Homes Insurance Scheme, under DVA, and DVA acts as the agent. QBE does the insurance, but DVA is the agent. Technically we don't know whether they're allowed to do that, so we've just got to try and fix this up. I've had discussions with the minister. I appreciate that correspondence. I think it is best for us to expediate this. Why? We have had a massive flood around Townsville. There are a lot of people there who have DVA housing. I'm absolutely certain they want to make sure that, at this point in time, their house is insured.

That was the entire contribution of the shadow minister, in the other place. His entire second reading debate contribution in the other place that day took three minutes, from 9.23 am to 9.26 am. We could get this done here, now, in the same fashion.

We have a contested bill, in the form of the Future Made in Australia legislation, and we have a bill that has agreement in the form of the Defence services legislation I've referred to. There is one that is immediate, urgent and retrospective. There is another piece of legislation, the Future Made in Australia legislation, which, at the earliest, commences on 1 April this year. Parts of it don't even commence until the year 2027.

Why are we doing it in this order? I don't know. We think it's important to get this done, especially for those that have been impacted in Queensland, as the shadow minister highlights, but in his words, 'I won't yack on too long'.