Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That intervening business be postponed till after consideration of government business order of the day No. 3 (National Water Commission (Abolition) Bill 2014).

I think like sands through the hour glass, so are the days of our legislating.

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor oppose this rearrangement of business. We are concerned that this morning we were in the middle of a very serious debate on the migration legislation, which we were told was absolutely urgent. So there was a change from last evening where the important National Water Commission (Abolition) Bill 2014 was listed. We were in the middle of that debate last night and thought it would continue. Then we came in this morning and the government had decided that that was not so important and that we would go to the asylum seeker bill. We do not believe this is the way to run the chamber. For this very crucial time, less than an hour, which we have for government business this afternoon we believe we should follow the scheme we had this morning. We know that the government is just waiting to get the numbers on this bill but it seems we are waiting consistently to see where the changes will be. That is not appropriate. It does not lead to consistency in the way we operate. It also means that the speakers who were lined up to have their engagement in these bills are then thrown away.

No urgency has been put forward by the government as to why we have to have this change. If the water commission bill was so urgent, we could have completed it this morning without a problem. We were told that the asylum bill needed to come on and it did. We are halfway through that one and this will just continue. As you know, Mr Acting Deputy President, the opposition were given a list of priority bills which the government needs to have asked by the end of this session. We look forward to the hours motion tomorrow, which will reinforce what those priorities will be. For the change of businesses this afternoon, we do not think this is appropriate. We do not think that we are putting on a stunt either because it seems every time we move in opposition to the government it is seen as a stunt. We are putting forward the issue which we believe we started. We are in the middle of considering the asylum bill and we should retain that process on the Red for the rest of the day.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by the Manager of Government Business, Senator Fifield, be agreed to.