Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As the Safe Work Australia legislation is currently before the Senate, it is not part of the financial management act regime, as we speak. It will need to be regulated some time after this legislation is passed. That would require us to rely on—and this is a very spooky thought—the goodwill of the government to actually do so after the event. In those circumstances, I would prefer the Senate to put a belt on the trousers and then if the government wants to regulate and also put a pair of braces on afterwards that will be fine by the coalition. But until such time as we are guaranteed that the braces have been put on, I think we will insist on our amendment, which will provide the belt.