Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I trust that I will not cause someone to seek leave to speak again in this debate. It has almost been a debate by leave. The reality is that this report, which I presented, has been circulated for some time. You will see that in item 3, the Evidence Amendment Bill 2008 is clearly delineated as a bill that is not to be referred to committees. The process of the committee was to go through the bills and ask for a determination that a bill be referred, not be referred or be deferred. So there are three options in that process. There was a very clear decision that this bill not be referred. That does not deal in any way with the rights of any senator to request that a bill not be dealt with in non-controversial legislation time. That is a different question.

I understand that it was communicated to the government that the opposition were happy to have this bill dealt with in that time this Thursday. I see Senator Brandis is shaking his head, but that is the information that I believe had been conveyed to the government. There may have been a breakdown in communication somewhere, but the reality is that the committee’s report is an accurate reflection of the meeting of the committee and that, at no stage during the meeting of the committee, was it suggested in any way that this bill might be referred or deferred. My recollection is that it was determined that it not be referred. Clearly very late in the piece, someone’s attention has been drawn to concerns which may have existed before the meeting but certainly were not drawn to the attention of the meeting. For the purposes of the processing of legislation before the committee, one can accept that from time to time matters slip through unnoticed but, on the other hand, there is a responsibility on all parties to bring to the meeting a position on what they wish to be done with legislation. That is so that, when this report comes before the chamber, we do not get into this sort of situation. That is so that it is an accurate reflection of the parties’ positions in relation to legislation so that the Selection of Bills Committee report can be adopted and we can process the necessary references and determine that bills not be referred in the way that is normally the process.