Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak to the motion in relation to the hours of meeting and routine of business for the remainder of the spring sittings, and to support the comments made by my colleague Senator Fifield in relation to why the opposition will not be supporting this motion. One of the comments that the Manager of Government Business in the Senate made was that the motion that is currently before the Senate will enable the Senate to spend more productive time on debating legislation. I have to say that that is a rather novel approach when you analyse the motion that is before the Senate, because when you go to part 2(c) of the motion, as Senator Fifield has outlined, in relation to the bill that is listed to be debated, from 7.30 pm to 7.45 pm, the second reading debate will occur on this bill.

The last time I checked, a senator had 20 minutes to give a second reading speech. This limits second readers to 15 minutes so I am not quite sure how many senators are going to get to participate in the second reading debate. Then from 7.45 to 8:15 pm all remaining stages of this particular bill will be debated. Again, if this bill were to go into committee, we would have all of 30 minutes to get through the committee stage, to report back to the Senate and to get to the third reading, and if anybody wanted to speak on the third reading there would be no speaking on the third reading. So when the Manager of Government Business says that this motion will enable the Senate to have more productive time, I am assuming that the Manager of Government Business was saying that with her tongue firmly implanted in her cheek.

Senator Jacinta Collins interjecting—