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

It is the prerogative of the government, not of the opposition, to deal with the legislative program. Senator Cormann has drawn the bill from the Notice Paper not so that he can amend it with a related amendment but so that he can tack an unrelated amendment onto it and send it off to the House to deal with. It is nothing more than a foolish stunt perpetrated by the opposition to hijack the legislative program in this place. Senator Cormann is in defiance of the program that we have set. It is not the prerogative of the opposition to cherry pick legislation.