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

Perhaps the Manager of Government Business would be kind enough to give a guarantee to the Senate that there is no intention to impose a gag or guillotine on senators over the next three days. Perhaps then we would have a little more comfort in relation to the motion and the reasons being given in asking the Senate to support the motion.

It is the government's obligation to manage their legislative program, and they do that with the sitting schedule that they publish. The sitting schedule is published at the end of each year for the coming year. This is the government's call. They have the timetable and they set the agenda. This is a government that does not like scrutiny. You cannot deny that. You cannot go from 22 weeks of sitting under the former Howard government to 18 weeks of sitting under a Labor government and say that you are all for scrutiny of our legislation. Add another four weeks to the sitting calendar—it is as simple as that! But they do not. So we reject the request for the extension of hours and the extra sitting week because the government should be able to manage within the hours that they have set themselves. The onus is on the government to make the case for a change to the sitting schedule and they have not done so. On that basis, the opposition will be voting against this motion.