Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Government first introduced the Future Drought Fund Bill and Future Drought Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill into the House of Representatives in November last year;

(b) the Government failed to prioritise the bills, with the Future Drought Fund Bill being introduced but never debated in the Senate, and the Future Drought Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill never passing the House;

(c) the Government introduced 26 bills into the House of Representatives last sitting week but these bills were not among them;

(d) today, the Government is seeking to both introduce and debate the amended bills on the one day;

(e) it is usual for bills to be introduced by the Government in one sitting week and not debated until the following sitting week to allow Members the opportunity to properly consider bills before voting on them; and

(f) the drought funding in these bills is not available to help farmers until 1 July 2020; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Government to adjourn debate on these bills immediately following the Minister's speech on the second reading to allow all Members the opportunity to properly consider these bills before debate resumes tomorrow.

What has been put on the Notice Paper today is really unusual. There are times when we rush legislation through. I remember John Howard coming in here and rushing legislation through on national security issues where an amendment had to be made so that arrests could take place later that week. It was urgent. We held emergency meetings, and it all went through straightaway and it was cooperative.

When the parliament last sat, the government had broken its promise to recall parliament before the end of the financial year and there was a priority to make sure that the stage 1 tax cuts were able to get into people's pockets. That week only had three days scheduled and one of them was to be dedicated to the memory of Bob Hawke. Therefore, the only way we could make sure that the bill could make it to the Senate was for there to be cooperation across the floor and to make sure that the debate could go through all stages on the first night. We did that for a very good reason. We had to get something through both houses that was to be backdated. There was a level of urgency and immediacy in the actions of the parliament.

Today, we are about to have legislation before us which starts taking effect on 1 July 2020. Whether it goes through this House today or tomorrow—and it's going to make it through the House; no-one doubts that, and I suspect it will make it through the Senate as well—

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