Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the point you are making. The reason for speed at the moment is that, as they have the numbers, the opposition intend to put in some amendments that the government does not agree with. This will require the bill to go over to the other place and then be bounced back. If we do not complete that either now or, at the latest, tomorrow—tomorrow morning will be a difficult time since, as you would know, often there is no government business in the morning—the actual bill will not pass. If this bill does not pass it will seriously jeopardise the capacity for the tender to take place. We do not sit again until quite late in June, and that will seriously derail the process.

I apologise for the brevity of the discussion here, but we believe our amendments adequately cover the issues that were raised by the Senate committee. We have a genuine disagreement with the opposition about it, but we believe we have crafted amendments which genuinely are strong enough to deal with the issues raised in the Senate committee. Unfortunately, as I said, time is precious. To facilitate the tender process, we need to get this bill through to the other place so that it can then come back for further debate. I am not sure if that truly solves your problem—I suspect it may not—but we are hampered by the timetabling at the moment.