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

I might just try to contribute to the debate a little bit. I have come in halfway through, so I might get Senator Ellison to reiterate the position he is putting. I missed it as I came to the chamber. As I understand it, he is seeking to add the wheat bills to the list. It is a little unusual for the opposition to be determining the government program. They do not seem to have understood that they are not in government anymore. In respect of the wheat bills, we are trying to facilitate the debate for the committee stage in this place. However, these matters are in a state of flux. We do think we should have sufficient time to look at the amendments to see if we can find any common ground between the relevant shadow minister and the minister responsible. That process also includes the usual processes we have as a government to ensure that, if we are going to debate or even deal with the amendments moved by the opposition, we do have adequate time to give you a clear view of what our position is, rather than you as an opposition simply opposing or amending without any regard to what the government is trying to achieve, as we saw in respect of the disallowance motion for the teen dental program.

Having said that, we think that we can foreshadow an amendment which omits the remainder of the day and substitutes from 3.45 pm till 6.30 pm. This means the wheat bills will still be listed at 7 pm. That may go some way to a solution. I wanted to be able to—and I thought we had an understanding on this—come back at some point and deal with the wheat bills by including them in the agenda if we could find a position where we could agree to have them dealt with this evening. If not, we are in the unfortunate position of still being at odds with the opposition on this. I foreshadow that amendment.