Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I am not in a fog; I have just been ignored for the last day or so. Senator Conroy, you did not bother to let me know what your amendments were. As I said earlier, the opposition at least did that. In fact, they went beyond that and came around and gave me a briefing; you did not. Were I to be someone who was interested in payback, I would just simply support all of the opposition’s amendments without even hearing an explanation. That is what I gather we are talking about now. We are going to finish in time for this bill to be taken to the House of Representatives—is that correct? It is good to hear about that finally. That means that there will be no debate on the amendments themselves, so I do not really have any option but to go with what I can see to be a sensible approach. If you think these amendments from the opposition will not work then, frankly, that is your bad luck. If we are not going to have a debate in the chamber and you are not going to bother to brief me on your amendments and why they are preferable to the opposition’s then that is a problem you have to deal with, I am afraid. If there is to be no debate, that is okay by me. We will just get on and I will support the opposition’s amendments, as I said.