Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move an amendment to the motion:

At the end of the motion, add:

No. 18    Wheat Export Marketing Bill 2008

Wheat Export Marketing (Repeal and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2008.

There have been discussions between the coalition, the government and other parties in relation to this bill. I might say that the coalition has circulated its amendments in the chamber. The government is well aware of the amendments that the coalition is putting forward, as are other parties. I believe the Senate is ready to deal with these bills and it should do so, especially when one considers that we are in a committee stage, we have had the second reading and there will be an opportunity this evening, albeit at the end of the list of bills. I am saying that, when you take into account those other bills, anything that the government needs to be considered can be considered in the interim.

This is something which has been discussed over a period of time. There is nothing new in the amendments and nothing which will come as a surprise to the government. Having regard to the heavy legislative agenda that the government has for next week, it would be undesirable to leave this hanging over until next week’s program. I simply do not see any reason at this stage to take these bills off the list of bills to be considered. I was under the impression we were going to keep all the bills on the list, including the wheat bills, and discussions would be ongoing between the government, the coalition and other parties if needs be. But that was not a block to these bills proceeding tonight. We believe that they should be dealt with tonight.