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

That is interesting, isn’t it? In the context that this bill should have been voted on at the end of last week, where would we have been on that issue if the bill had been passed last week? That is just an interesting observation.

In general terms, can I endorse the minister’s response to Senator Milne in relation to why the coalition will not be supporting the Greens amendment. I had sought previously, in an orderly way, to ask a few general questions. Unfortunately there were interruptions by other senators and now Senator Milne has moved her amendment. That is fine, but I will now ask a raft of general questions and seek to get the minister’s response to them in due course.

It makes good sense when you have a debate that goes over a number of days that new information will come to light. The new information, for example with the IPART report, is a matter that could not have been asked about beforehand in the general discussion of the committee or before the report was publicly released. If a senator is to be condemned for raising a general matter of this nature in the committee stage, that would mean that the senator would be locked out from asking questions about what is a very serious matter.