Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Colleagues, the motion before us is seeking to suspend standing orders in order to allow Senator Brandis to move a straightforward motion: that the Senate sits until midnight tonight in order to deal with the Australian Education Amendment Bill and that, if the Senate has not concluded its consideration of that bill by midnight tonight, the Senate will sit tomorrow until such time as it has concluded that business.

Colleagues in this place will have seen similar suspension motions many times before and similar proposed hours motions many times before. I think it is important to acknowledge that in seeking to suspend standing orders Senator Brandis is not seeking to move a motion that would curtail in any way, shape or form this chamber's opportunity to debate and to consider this legislation. The purpose of Senator Brandis's suspension motion is to allow substantive motions to be moved that would in fact facilitate the consideration of this legislation for as long as is required to do that legislation justice.

That is in contrast to previous approaches which have been taken in this place which have sought to use guillotine motions. I think those of us who have been here for some time well remember a period under the previous administration where, I think, 54 bills were guillotined in the course of a week. There was something in the order of 25 or 30 bills upon which votes occurred without there being any debate at all. I think it is to the credit of those senators who tend to sit at the far end of the horseshoe that they will not support motions that seek to deny colleagues the opportunity to debate. In fact, they will only support motions in this parliament which seek to facilitate the debate of legislation.

That is what Senator Brandis is seeking to do—to ensure that this important legislation can be addressed. This is not uncommon at this particular point of the legislative cycle, in the last few days before there is a significant break such as we have in the middle of the year. This sort of legislation does require to have the attention of this chamber, and Senator Brandis's motion will ensure that it has that opportunity. Importantly, Senator Brandis's substantive motions will ensure that there is not the capacity for any grouping in this chamber to filibuster legislation to ensure that the parliament or the Senate times out and does not have the opportunity to consider this legislation. Senator Brandis's motion ensures that there is not the opportunity to filibuster, but rather that the Senate has the opportunity to conclude this important business before it rises for the winter break.

This is important for a number of reasons, but the prime reason is to ensure that Australia's school education sectors have certainty for the future. Australian school education sectors want the Australian parliament and Australian Senate to conclude this matter so that they can budget and so that they can know where they stand. That is the certainty that Senator Brandis's substantive motions seek to ensure the Senate has the opportunity to provide. There is not the opportunity for contributions to be made in the form that would seek to use all of the available time in the ordinary Senate schedule. I would commend my colleagues to support Senator Brandis's motion that we suspend standing orders so that he can move his substantive motions so that the Senate can deal with this business and give the school sector certainty.