Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That government business notice of motion no. 1, relating to the hours of meeting and routine of business for today, and government business order of the day no. 1 (Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 and a related bill) be postponed till a later hour.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an extraordinary situation where, for the second day running, the government advises us, with minutes to go, that its Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 will not be proceeded with yet. It is clear the government does not know when it will be in a position to have stitched up a deal to proceed with that bill but, in the meantime, the Senate sits around waiting for its opportunity to deal with the bill. We were told that it would come on for debate first thing on Monday, that we needed to be prepared and that it would be debated on Monday and Tuesday—and the minister was insisting we have a vote by Wednesday. There would be no further delay: we would have the vote by Wednesday. Here we are on Tuesday and we cannot even get debate started on the bill! The government is in such disarray it cannot even bring the bill on. So, not only is it not ready to vote but it is not even ready to debate it. The Senate has been treated with complete contempt, because we just sit around waiting for the next bit of advice about when the government might be able to get its act together. Quite frankly, it is totally unacceptable.

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Coonan, has totally lost control. She flaps around as a hapless minister, waiting for the National Party or the Prime Minister to tell her whether or not she is going to be able to proceed with her bill. We had the extraordinary situation last night, apparently, where she was prepared to negotiate with The Nationals—but only one at a time! She was not prepared to take them on more than one at a time. They could come in individually, but they could not come in as a team. She is that frightened by Senator Joyce and Senator Nash that she will not deal with them together—an extraordinary situation. We have the minister having late night discussions, trying to convince Nationals senators—and all the while the Senate waits. It hangs around, waiting, promised by the government: ‘Soon we’ll be able to bring the bill in—if not today, then tomorrow.’

The minister just postponed a notice of motion which was designed to have us sitting tonight. Senators have cancelled arrangements tonight so as to be available tonight to debate the bill. The government came and asked the Labor opposition whether we would be prepared to sit extra time, extra hours, and we said, ‘Sure, we’re always prepared to work to deal with important legislation.’ But now they are not sure whether they want to do it, because they have not got their act together. This is a government that have totally lost control.

It is an irony, isn’t it? At a time when they control the Senate, when they have the numbers in the Senate, they cannot control themselves. The government are in total disarray, unable to deliver in the parliament, so the parliament is treated with contempt. The parliament is not the place where they are prepared to debate their ideas and their policies; they try and do it in backroom deals, try to work in the dead of night, try to stitch up deals so they can come into the parliament and pretend they have got a policy position of some consistency. They are not prepared to come in here and debate those issues. They are not prepared to see where the argument takes us. This is even though they have got the numbers. They are still not prepared to deal with parliamentary scrutiny until they think they can stitch up their dissidents or stitch up people who might actually think that narrowing the base of media ownership is not necessarily a good thing for Australia.

We are being treated with total disdain. The parliament is being treated with an arrogant disdain by the Prime Minister. Senators do not know what to prepare for. One minute it is coming on; next minute it is not. Now Senator Ellison is telling me that it may be coming on later. We were prepared yesterday to start this debate; it was postponed. We were assured it would start today; it has been postponed again. The government is in total disarray.

We had the Prime Minister yesterday indicating he just might not be so committed to media ownership—it might all be just a little too hard—and, really, it was not a particularly high priority for him. In other words, he might cut and run again, like all the rhetoric about Iraq: ‘We’ve got to stay the course; we’re not prepared to cut and run’! Who remembers the refugee legislation, the unauthorised arrivals legislation? I seem to remember someone cutting and running. He could not deliver what he wanted, so he cut and ran. Here we are again today, on the broadcasting media ownership laws: ‘Well, I’m not sure I can deliver, so I’m preparing to cut and run.’ He will not bring it on in the parliament and he will not have the debate until he can be assured he is going to win—and, if he cannot get his way, his petulance will see the bill not brought on.

The minister has been left to hang out to dry. She is now completely undermined, and the Prime Minister’s petulant arrogance says, ‘I can only bring it on if I can win. I’m not going to play: I’m going to take my ball home unless you say I’m allowed to win.’ That is what we saw with the refugee bill, the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006. He was so dedicated to it, so committed to it, that he did not even have the guts to bring it into the parliament, because he could not get his way. We have seen that petulance and arrogance again with the appointment to the Telstra board and the way that Mr Howard has insisted on trying to get his man on the board—despite the rightful objections—as a spy for the government, because he is concerned he has lost control. It is petulant. It is arrogant. It is a sign that the government is governing for itself, driven by ideology, not by the needs of Australian citizens, and today we have another example that the government has just lost it. It is a government in decay. It is a government that is losing the plot. It is a government that is governing for itself.

We now have the disarray reflected in the Telstra legislation. What a shambles that has been. We have had the shambles of the on again, off again Medibank privatisation; we have had the refugee legislation, where we fussed around for weeks, debated it in the public arena and then the government did not have the courage to bring it into the parliament; and now we have the media ownership legislation, with the Prime Minister preparing to walk away, leaving the back door open to cut and run. We have the parliament being treated with complete disdain, because the government, for the second day in a row, has said, ‘Oh well, we’re not ready.’ In other words: ‘We haven’t stitched up the deal. We don’t know whether we can rely on the Nats. Till we get the deal together, it’s all a bit hard and we want to leave ourselves the option of cutting and running.’ We are all waiting. We are acting on your advice. We have all made other arrangements for tonight because you said you needed the extra hours. You are not prepared to go ahead with that, because you do not know if you will need them. We have had people preparing for debates that have been delayed.

The Senate does not know where it is at because the government does not know where it is at. We ought to be treated with more respect. We need to have the government explain just what is going on, because the minister has clearly lost control. She is an embarrassment to the government. She does not enjoy the support of the party and she has no idea what is going on. She has no idea what her policy is. She has no idea what she will walk into the parliament with. We understand that the government is drafting hundreds of amendments as it madly tries to make some sense of the policy mess that is now its media ownership policy. It is not good enough. It is a sign that the government has completely lost it. The arrogance and the petulance of not being prepared to front up to the parliament and debate these issues is, I think, a real sign of a government that is decaying rapidly. We ought to be treated with more respect. The government ought to bring on the legislation and they ought to be clear about when it is coming on.

For the second day in a row, the government has had to delay the legislation—giving last-minute notice to other senators and treating them with complete disrespect. The government ought to get its act together, because at this stage we clearly will not get the bill by the end of the week. We have a very difficult committee stage ahead. The minister said that she needed the bill by Wednesday—she said that we were not going beyond Wednesday. Well, it is now Tuesday, we have not started and there is no sign of us starting. As I say, the minister is postponing the motion and there is nothing that we can do other than agree with it. But it really is a sign of the arrogance of the government, of how it is losing control and of how the Prime Minister is leaving himself the option of cutting and running.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens do not support this motion. We believe that the Senate ought not be sitting at the pleasure of the member for Bennelong. It is a much more serious matter than that. There has to be goodwill in this place and a consideration which is mature, proper and adequate by all members involved. For us to support this motion would mean that the government will sometime later today, perhaps, finalise the media legislation, with major amendments, which we would be expected to debate, with no reference to our constituencies, at 7.30 pm tonight.

Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They’re cancelling tonight’s sittings.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, they are postponing consideration of it, Senator. That means simply whittling away the opportunity of the Senate to make a considered decision about when it will sit to determine very important amendments to the legislation, which from the Greens point of view ought to be going back out to the community for discussion and input so that we can be properly democratically representative of the community we come from. These are huge issues. These are issues about the right of our democratic community to be informed from a wide variety of sources instead of having an ever-diminishing number of people controlling the media. It is fundamental to democracy.

We do not go along with a government that says, ‘Sometime later today, we will decide whether or not the Senate sits tonight to consider legislation that it has not seen.’ That is an appalling process. The government ought to think again about that. If the government wants to have extra sittings on this matter, then it should schedule another sitting week. It does not want to do that, because it does not want to face the scrutiny of parliament on more days than it can help. The whole process is one of the Senate being abused by the executive—by the Prime Minister’s office, and at his direction. The minister is the hapless intermediary in that process. We will not accept it.

Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I agree with my colleagues on this side of the chamber on the mess that we are in today in dealing with the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 or not dealing with it; we are still not sure whether it is coming on for debate. I think it is a disgraceful way to treat the Senate and the scrutiny over government legislation that we are charged with. We have now had the bill delayed for at least two days, when there was a very short time frame in which to examine this legislation—legislation we now understand is likely to be hugely varied by negotiation with members of the National Party. They will no doubt take on board their rural constituents but forget about some of the other really big issues in this legislation, which will no doubt be swept through if agreement is reached.

I want to make the point that this is no way to conduct business. This is neither a way for us to have a proper understanding of this legislation nor to have a proper debate in this place. It is on again, off again. Suddenly we are back to the ANSTO legislation and then we are going to be on something else after ANSTO. It is a shemozzle; and pandemonium really. I wish the government would do as the Prime Minister suggests and agree that this is not important and that we should drop the whole bill, because quite frankly we see no merit in any of it and I think the vast majority of Australians see no merit in this legislation. If the Prime Minister is in doubt about its importance and says he does not care one way or the other, then let us forget about it and get on with the more important business of this place. I would encourage the government to do that. I think it is appropriate for them to withdraw the bill and for us to reschedule the rest of this week’s sitting so that we know what it is that we are dealing with.

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What we are doing today is simply finishing off last night’s second reading stage speeches on the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Amendment Bill 2006. I understand that we have two or three speakers remaining on that and, of course, they would have been aware that speeches on the second reading were delivered last night. I do not see that there is any great issue with continuing those this afternoon. It is public knowledge that there has been a Senate committee of inquiry into the broadcasting legislation. Recommendations have been made by the committee on that legislation. The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts has been considering those, the report having been tabled last Friday. The minister has had that under consideration. As I advised the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Evans, I anticipate the broadcasting bills coming on after the second reading stage speeches have concluded. The government’s intention is to bring on the second reading debate on the broadcasting legislation at the conclusion of the second reading stage speeches on the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Amendment Bill 2006. As I understand it, the list for that is relatively short.

I would remind senators that we try to give people as much notice as possible but, as it says on the Senate red in the top right-hand corner, ‘This document is issued as a guide to senators. The business listed is subject to change.’ It has certainly been my experience that that document has been available in the Senate under both the previous government and this government. I certainly endeavour to give as much notice as I possibly can to senators. That is the situation; that is the intended program of the government. In discovery of formal business, which will take place after question time, I will deal with the question of extended hours this evening—of which notice was given yesterday—to incorporate and facilitate an extended debate on the broadcasting legislation, as senators have expressed a great interest in that. That is the government’s proposal. That is the plan of action and I commend the motion to the Senate.

Question put:

That the motion (That the motion (Senator Ellison’s) be agreed to.) be agreed to.