Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What remarkable contributions from those opposite. I have been in this place serving the Tasmanian community for five years now and it is a great privilege to do that. But to come in here today and to stand up and talk about a legislative program of the nature that the opposition were trying to assert quite frankly does them no favours at all because this is no different to any other time of the year. I want to reiterate, as the minister did in his comments, that on every occasion when we have tried to increase the amount of sitting time or to extend the sitting time those opposite are the first ones out the door.

If we want to talk about the legislation that is on the program for this week it includes the Tax Laws Amendment (2010 Measures No. 4) Bill. The Higher Education Support Amendment Bill, if I recall, was debated last night. There is the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Connecting People with Jobs) Bill. We also have the National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) Bill and the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill. I think the contributions that senators make in relation to the address-in-reply to the Governor-General’s speech are significant. It was a very important speech that was delivered in this place outlining the program that this government has. Obviously, it really narks those opposite because they cannot come to terms with the fact that the Australian community rejected them. Why did they reject them? It was because they had no plan.