Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

  That—

(1) The routine of business for the remainder of the day be consideration of government business only.

(2) Divisions may take place after 4.30 pm.

(3) The Senate shall adjourn without debate after it has completed consideration of the Counter-Terrorism (Temporary Exclusion Orders) Bill 2019 and a related bill, including any message from the House of Representatives, or a motion for the adjournment is moved by a minister, whichever is the earlier.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This legislation has been four years in the making—four years! And then here you go, coming in and disrupting the business of this Senate and preventing us from scrutinising things, like important government documents, in order to jam it through as quickly as possible. There is no need for this unseemly rush. It's poor legislation anyway and, in fact, the government should have supported it being referred to a Senate inquiry so that we could make appropriate inquiries and recommendations on it. The Greens do not support this motion.

Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to advise the chamber that we will be supporting this motion, but I want to make the point that this legislation has been known to the government since the UK introduced their scheme in 2015. The government waited four years to bring this scheme in. They announced it in November, they put it forward in February, they sent it off to the committee, the committee reported back in April and here we are in July, finally debating this legislation after four years.

This week the government prioritised a drought fund bill ahead of this legislation. They pushed that through the House ahead of this legislation. This legislation could have been in the Senate much earlier this week. This legislation that they say is an imperative—that it is a policy imperative and an operational imperative that we have this legislation passed—could have been done earlier this week. But they put forward a drought fund bill. I'm not saying drought and helping our farmers aren't important, but that drought fund doesn't start for two years. This, they say, is important. The drought fund doesn't start for two years, but that was their priority. The opposition will be supporting this hours motion, because we don't want to leave here this week without this legislation passing the parliament. That's why we're supporting this motion. But I want it on the record that the government has had four years and had plenty of time this week, and it didn't get it done. We want to make sure it gets done before we leave Canberra this week. That's why we're supporting this motion.

Question agreed to.