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

What normally happens with respect to these matters of course is that if there were any correction made to the record, I would deal with that at the end of question time. What I can say in relation to the motion that was put in this house, at first instance there was no reporting date. Senator Abetz is correct to say that the committee did have an amendment to that motion and that amendment, as Senator Abetz is correct to say, is that the committee is to report on 30 September 2008 or after the consideration of any related bills mentioned in paragraph 1b, whichever is the sooner. That is the correct position, but the original motion did not have a reporting date. Today it was amended. It was also amended unsuccessfully by Senator Bartlett. To the extent that the motion that was put in this place did not have that date, that is correct. To the point that we are now at, it is and it has been amended to have the date. What I said was, not only are they referring it to a Senate committee but they have refused even to give the committee a reporting date in the original motion. I did not say original motion and I could correct the record to say that. Instead, of course, if we go to the substantive issue though, this really hides the substantive issue that the opposition cannot come to grips with. The substantive issue is the committee has got an issue that will not be able to report—