I seek leave to refer a matter to a committee.

Leave is not granted because the government whip says he has not been consulted.

My understanding is that the government has been consulted and has agreed for leave to be granted.

I’m not sure who that was with but it hasn’t been communicated to me.

Is leave granted?

As I understand it, the opposition intend to move a motion to send a matter to the community affairs committee in respect of RTD, or ready-to-drink, alcoholic beverages. The government opposes the motion. In order to ensure that we can have a debate about this matter, and also in the interests of time, given my earlier comments that the government does have a program to get through, we will therefore have the debate rather than go through the usual procedures. It is not unusual to do it in this way where our intentions are clear. We can then go to the substantive matter and have the debate about this issue. The government feels strongly about it and will make its statements in the course of the debate. Therefore, we do not need to go through a contingent notice of motion and the Senate procedures. This has happened in the past. In the interests of ensuring that we can go to the substance of the debate, have the debate and then, in the interests of not keeping senators unnecessarily, because we do have a legislative program to deal with today, we will go on to the legislative program at the conclusion of the debate—but we do need to deal with a matter before that.

Leave not granted.