Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Prime Minister for Social Inclusion) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the sitting of the Senate be suspended till 2 pm.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why does the parliamentary secretary seek to move the suspension of the Senate, given that there are before the chamber what I thought were very pressing matters that should have been passed by last Friday?

Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Prime Minister for Social Inclusion) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to respond. I was asked to do that to facilitate getting people into the chamber for the two o’clock business.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of the government.

Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Prime Minister for Social Inclusion) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We were expecting the senator to speak for his full time; that is all. There is nothing untoward here.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sure it is like this morning, when the government was not ready with its officials to answer questions in the committee stage. We are now seeing another seven minutes wasted, all part of the filibustering that we have observed all morning in the government’s desperate attempt to cobble together something in relation to its now much questioned spending spree policy. The government controls the show. If it wants to adjourn, of course it is entitled to, but it exposes the myth and the misrepresentation by the Leader of the Government in this place last week that this legislation had to be passed by Friday last week and that it was absolutely urgent. We have had filibustering this morning, and now more time is being wasted by adjourning the Senate.

Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The explanation for the adjournment is that we are due to go to certain other business at 2 pm. Given that it was not expected that the Senate would get back to the urgent and pressing business until after that and that other people, who have been in here all morning, would not be able to get back here in time, it was thought appropriate that, rather than waste the time of the Senate, we suspend for a couple of minutes, deal with those matters and then get on with the pressing business. That is the reason the government has been asking, through the parliamentary secretary, for the debate to be adjourned. It is not to avoid the debate; it is simply a matter which we think is for the convenience of the Senate.

Question agreed to.