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

I apologise, Mr Deputy President. In the past two weeks, the Senate spent almost 30 hours debating the clean energy package. Without doubt this is significant legislation deserving scrutiny. Unfortunately, the Senate has also spent far too many hours on procedural motions—MPI debates—that are, quite frankly, simply variations of a tired theme. Senator Macdonald has been one of those who has contributed significantly to that tired theme, debating bills that all senators recognise are noncontroversial. By convention, as agreed by all parties and Independent senators, non-controversial bills are put through at a particular time on Thursdays. Why? Because they are, by their nature, noncontroversial.

However, we now have some 13 non-controversial bills carrying over from the last three sitting periods. This has led to the government seeking, in this motion, to have them dealt with at the end of this week. Why? Because they are non-controversial bills. Those on the other side have sought to debate those non-controversial bills at length, ad nauseum.