Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement in relation to the hours of business today.

Leave granted.

I thank the Senate. It is worth explaining to the Senate the position we are now in. At the beginning of the week it was understood we would proceed with two bills and then a third bill was added, the social security bill, a budget bill which came out from Tuesday night. We expect the social security bill to be dealt with expeditiously today. In respect of the two bills that the government did want to proceed with this week, the first bill is the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment Bill 2008, which has been dealt with and the government has met the commitment that that bill would be passed as a necessary bill for this week. The second necessary bill for this week is the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband Network) Bill 2008. That bill was dealt with last night, up until 6.50 pm, when we went on to government documents. Because of amendments moved by the opposition, that bill is being dealt with in the House of Representatives today. It will, hopefully, come out of the House at an early time, which will allow that matter to be dealt with by the Senate before 12.45 pm. However, there does not seem to be a guarantee that I can give for that.

It is a bill that the government did indicate at the beginning of the week that it does want to deal with. The government will continue to say that we do need to deal with that bill in its entirety this week; therefore, I will move a motion which will allow that bill to be dealt with to conclusion once the message returns—hopefully before 12.45 pm, but there is no guarantee of that from the House. I will not seek to move the motion concerning hours this morning and have the debate without knowing exactly when that bill will return and whether there will be sufficient time for that bill to be dealt with.

I seek the concurrence of other senators to postpone the hours motion until later on in the day, and I can move that motion by leave if necessary to allow the debate on that bill. That would mean a couple of things. Firstly, if the bill were to come forward after 12.45 pm, during what is called the non-controversial time for bills, then that message could be dealt with during that period. If it were not able to be returned and finalised by that time, the next available time would be during general business, and I would ask the opposition to provide the time for the message to be dealt with during that time. I expect it not to be a long debate, so we could then go on to general business. If the bill continued to be dealt with and was not finalised, then we could continue past 6 o’clock and use the time for at least half an hour, until 6.30 pm, have the dinner break and come back for the address-in-reply by both the opposition and the minor parties and then continue to deal with the bill and/or message until conclusion. That is the intention of the government.

We are serious about this bill, which is one of Labor’s main election commitments. It provides for the rollout of the national broadband network. It provides the basics for the mechanics to allow the tender process to go forward. The bill cannot be held up in the Senate. We must deal with it this week to allow all of those processes to proceed. I thought that it would be worth while this morning to explain the position, although I have taken longer than I might have imagined. It has an impact on all senators and their work requirements—and perhaps on the planes that they may wish to catch this evening. In any event, I seek the agreement and cooperation of the Senate to achieve that.