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

All right; he could have been in the chamber throughout the whole period to discuss this issue. He said, ‘Possibly with right of entry the Greens might have an interest.’ That is right, but with small business the Greens have not moved an amendment. The only three parties that have are the opposition, Family First and Senator Xenophon—whereas the Greens have a specific interest in the amendments we are now dealing with and the minister is deliberately proceeding with them in the absence of the Greens.

What is motivating this behaviour? Why this dogmatic denial of the opposition’s request to simply deal with something which we could have dealt with by now which then would have allowed us to proceed in a logical manner through a lot of the other amendments that deal with the issue of small business? At this stage of the debate the Senate still has not determined its definition of small business. I would have thought it would have made sense for the orderly conduct of this debate to have done this. We could have done it by now. The minister is now deliberately moving into an area that the Greens have a keen interest in and the Greens cannot be here.

Now, I am not usually here to defend the Greens, but all parties have been very cooperative in getting these amendments through. There are over 50 pages worth of amendments from the government, and, when you add ours and everybody else’s, it needs cooperation. I think we have been very cooperative for the minister and the minister has not shown any cooperation in reciprocation. I just put that on the table and would be interested in an answer from the minister, because we could have dealt with this issue of ‘small business’ definition by now.

In relation to the specific amendment that is before us, I can indicate the opposition will oppose it, as it will oppose the raft of amendments that we will be dealing with in this section and in particular the next couple as they relate to the transport sector.

Question agreed to.