Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That:

(1)   On Thursday, 22 March 2007:

(a)   the hours of meeting shall be 9.30 am to 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm to 11.40 pm;

(b)   the routine of business from 12.45 pm till not later than 2 pm, and from 7.30 pm shall be government business only;

(c)   divisions may take place after 4.30 pm; and

(d)   the question for the adjournment of the Senate shall be proposed at 11 pm.

(2)   The Senate shall sit on Friday, 23 March 2007 and that:

(a)   the hours of meeting shall be 9.30 am to 4.10 pm;

(b)   the routine of business shall be:

(i)   notices of motion, and

(ii)   government business only; and

(c)   the question for the adjournment of the Senate shall be proposed at 3.30 pm.

(3)   On Tuesday, 27 March 2007:

(a)   the hours of meeting shall be 12.30 pm to 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm to adjournment;

(b)   the routine of business from 7.30 pm shall be government business only; and

(c)   the question for the adjournment of the Senate shall be proposed at 10 pm.

(4)   On Thursday, 29 March 2007:

(a)   the hours of meeting shall be 9.30 am to 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm to adjournment;

(b)   consideration of general business and consideration of committee reports, government responses and Auditor-General’s reports under standing order 62(1) and (2) shall not be proceeded with;

(c)   the routine of business from 12.45 pm till not later than 2 pm, and from not later than 4.30 pm shall be government business only;

(d)   divisions may take place after 4.30 pm; and

(e)   the question for the adjournment of the Senate shall be proposed after the Senate has finally considered the bills listed below, including any messages from the House of Representatives:

Aged Care Amendment (Security and Protection) Bill 2007

Airports Amendment Bill 2006

Airspace Bill 2006

Airspace (Consequentials and Other Measures) Bill 2006

Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2007

Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2006-2007

Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2006-2007

AusCheck Bill 2006

Corporations Amendment (Takeovers) Bill 2007

Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Welfare to Work and Vocational Rehabilitation Services) Bill 2006

Energy Efficiency Opportunities Amendment Bill 2006

Farm Household Support Amendment Bill 2007

Health Insurance Amendment (Provider Number Review) Bill 2007

Migration Legislation Amendment (Information and Other Measures) Bill 2007

Migration Amendment (Review Provisions) Bill 2006 [2007]

Migration Amendment (Border Integrity) Bill 2006

Native Title Amendment Bill 2006

Private Health Insurance Bill 2006

Private Health Insurance (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2006

Private Health Insurance (Prostheses Application and Listing Fees) Bill 2006

Private Health Insurance (Collapsed Organization Levy) Amendment Bill 2006

Private Health Insurance Complaints Levy Amendment Bill 2006

Private Health Insurance (Council Administration Levy) Amendment Bill 2006

Private Health Insurance (Reinsurance Trust Fund Levy) Amendment Bill 2006

Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2006

Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill 2007

Tax Laws Amendment (2006 Measures No. 7) Bill 2006

Tax Laws Amendment (2007 Measures No. 1) Bill 2007.

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

The government is proposing to have us sit on Friday and to have extended sittings again next week but, as you know, Mr President, we are not sitting at all in April. The position of the Greens on this matter is that we ought to be sitting more weeks. That would cover all the matters that Senator Abetz just referred to. It would provide proper debating opportunity. It would give the public proper opportunity to feed into legislation, instead of it being dumped on the Senate and expedited through this extraordinary mechanism we have just seen and us now having to sit on Friday and sit extended hours, as we will tonight and next Tuesday. Of course, the Greens would have no objection to that if there were unforeseen circumstances which confronted the nation. But that is not the circumstance here. The foreseen circumstance is the government moving to an election in disarray and in great disfavour with the Australian public and wanting to get out of the parliament as fast as it can without the proper use of the Senate to enable it to adequately scrutinise the legislation and scrutinise the government’s performance.

Instead of sitting fewer hours, fewer days in recent decades, if there is an extended workload the government needs to deal with then we should be sitting extra weeks. With that comes the ability of the opposition parties to question the government each day and move motions challenging the government and, through public consultation, to adequately tackle the government on its legislative schedule as well as its performance in an election year. We are dealing here with a government majority, who are simply abusing the normal forms of the Senate and saying, ‘Let’s get out of here. We can’t stand it in the Senate. We want to get away from the parliament.’ The Prime Minister, his ministers and his members always do better if they are not under the force of scrutiny that the Senate sittings can bring.

This is a crash and run project by the government—and the minister knows that—to get out of this place but to get its legislation through by sitting extra hours at night and by sitting on Friday, for goodness sake, when there is no emergency here. There is no emergency legislation here whatsoever. When it comes to drought relief and other matters that the minister just spoke about, it is absolutely his own fault that legislation has not been brought in here with the usual forms of the Senate. I remind the senator that the drought has affected this great country of ours over the last 10 years, not only over the last 10 days. If the government is not able or competent enough to bring in legislation to give relief to farmers within the usual sitting hours of the parliament, that shows incompetence by the government and a failure to understand the role of government.

What is demonstrated here, of course, is the absolute arrogance of this Prime Minister and this government’s failure to connect with the Australian people. Decisions are now made in the Prime Minister’s office and in cabinet, and the House of Representatives as well as the Senate are being used simply as a rubber stamp because the government has the numbers. This is the hubris that the Prime Minister said he would not use when, after the last election, it was found that the government had a majority in the Senate. If there is ever a reason for the Australian voters to remove that majority at the forthcoming federal election, we are seeing it exemplified here today as the government uses its numbers to get rid of the proper scrutiny that the Senate can bring.

Sure, the government is running scared. Sure, the government wants to get out of here. Certainly, the Prime Minister will instruct Senator Abetz to bring in motions like this to cut short proper Senate sittings. Let me put on the record that the Greens are quite prepared to support a motion from the government to bring us back to sit in April, when there are zero sittings listed, so that the Senate can properly function and do its job. We do not support this proposal to have an extra sitting on Friday and to sit late into the night so that the government can get out of here without being presented with more question times and more debates on its failure to deliver good governance to this country. It is time this government went.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, we have been presented with a bizarre concoction of arguments by the Leader of the Australian Greens. For the sake of those who are listening in to this debate, let us remember that the parliamentary timetable for this year was in fact set last year at a time when, if I might be as bold to say, the government was still doing a bit better in the opinion polls than it is currently. So the argument that was postulated by the Leader of the Australian Greens that we have somehow cut short the sittings because the opinion polls are currently against us and things are not going well for us flies in the face of the objective fact, which is that the timetable was set last year when the circumstances were completely different.

The one telling thing about the opinion polls in recent times, as Senator Parry would well know as a student of these things, is that another party has been suffering in the opinion polls as well, and that is the Australian Greens—only at five per cent, which would mean it would not get a single senator back into this place at the next election. That is the reason that Senator Bob Brown is now trying to become a de facto opposition in this place.

The reality is that this government has moved a motion for extra sitting hours and, indeed, an extra sitting day. We said, ‘Let’s sit on Friday,’ but in response the Leader of the Australian Greens says, ‘No, don’t sit on Friday; let’s sit in April.’ What intellectual prowess would the Leader of the Australian Greens present to the Senate in April that he is unable to present on Friday? Absolutely none. This is a pathetic attempt by the Australian Greens to oppose anything this government does—and for one simple reason: cheap politics without any objective basis to the assertions being made.

All of the bills on this list that we have put before this place have been to a committee or honourable senators in this place have not sought to refer them to a committee. That is the truth about the bills on this list. Either the bills have been considered by a committee—a structure of this place—or honourable senators have said, ‘These bills are not worthy for consideration by the various committees of this place and therefore we believe it is appropriate to bring them on for debate.’ Why defer something for extra consultation when, at the Selection of Bills Committee and at other forums of this Senate, honourable senators have agreed not to refer these particular bills to a committee?

What we are saying is very simply that there are some important things to be done, be it the Farm Household Support Amendment Bill, the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill et cetera—those relatively non-controversial bills that have been to committees or that honourable senators did not want to refer to committees but that, in recognition of the important role of this chamber in our parliamentary democracy, we acknowledge should be given extra time. That is why we are suggesting an extended sitting regime—extended night sittings this week and an extra sitting day on Friday.

The date on Friday will be 23 March. What would be the difference if, instead of debating these matters on 23 March, we were to debate them on 2 April? What would be the difference between those two dates and that one week? What would be the material difference between sitting in April and sitting at the end of March? There is none. This is another pitiful example of the Leader of the Australian Greens wasting the time of this place and trying to make arguments where there are none. If the Australian Greens genuinely wanted these bills to be considered, they might have said that the bills were worthy of being referred to a committee. That, of course, did not happen. I ask honourable senators to support the motion.

Question agreed to.