Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That there be laid on the table and presented to the President under standing order 166, no later than noon on Monday, 18 July 2011, non-commercial aspects of all reports and briefings prepared by the assessment panel for Australia Network tenders, as well as all correspondence between the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, and their respective departments, regarding the tender process, potential or actual tenderers, the tenders received and any changes proposed or actual to the tender process.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a terribly botched process surrounding the Australian Network tender. It is a terribly botched process that is in desperate need of having some transparency applied to it—some sunlight applied to it, as the govern­ment may say—and actually giving some idea of what has gone so, so wrong. It is important to understand that there are lives hanging in the balance, in terms of jobs and livelihoods, on this. Staff of the ABC rightly want to know why this tender process has been so delayed. This is an issue that I pursued during Senate estimates. We saw absolute obstructionism from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade at that time. Now, of course, it is clear why. Clearly they knew to some extent that they were about to be stripped of responsibility for this. Clearly they knew at the time that this process was going to be further delayed. Clearly they knew at the time that there were a number of serious problems in this regard.

This process has seen the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Rudd, stripped of responsibility. Whether that is because the Prime Minister did not want the Australian Network to turn into the 'Kevin 24/7 Network', or what the process is, who knows? But we should get some transparency applied to this. We should understand whether there is a genuine concern when it comes to the conflict of interest that the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy may potentially have in terms of being the minister responsible for the ABC and now finding himself as the minister responsible for the Australian Network tender.

This is months behind. We have a further six-month delay, putting all the lives of ABC staff into a state of limbo as they do not know whether they will keep the contract or not, and the government comes up with some ridiculous excuse about the Middle East situation causing the delay.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Birmingham, I have shown great patience on this occasion. I draw your attention and the attention of honourable senators to the Procedure Committee second report of 2011, dated 22 June. I will quote from that:

Procedures for dealing with formal motions

The committee has considered the operation of standing order 66 on numerous occasions. Standing order 66(3) provides that a formal motion shall be put and determined without amendment or debate.

It goes on to say:

Current difficulties are largely attributable to senators seeking leave to depart from these rules and the Senate granting leave, almost as a matter of course. In particular, the number of statements being made by leave in relation to complex motions leads to a de facto debate on those motions, contrary to standing order 66. This is because senators, instead of making statements, assert views in the nature of debate by mounting arguments and responding to positions expressed by others.

It goes on to say, and I quote inter alia:

... it urges senators to pay more heed to the existing restrictions. For example, if a senator wishes to amend a notice of motion, then generally, as a courtesy to the Senate, that notice should be postponed till the next day of sitting to enable the senator to use the procedures under standing order 77 to amend the notice in writing and for the notice to appear in its amended form in the next day's Notice Paper. Secondly, the committee encourages parties to use internal means to limit the number of senators seeking leave to make statements on motions to one from each group (Government, Opposition, Australian Greens).

I have read the whole thing for completion. I would ask honourable senators to please note that from the Procedure Committee.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Birmingham's) be agreed to.

The Senate divided. [12:09]

(The President—Senator Hogg)

Question negatived.