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

The motion allows for some 30 hours of debate on legislation this week, assuming that the opposition does not continue to use its time to debate procedural motions. This motion provides additional sitting hours on Tuesday night and Thursday this week, and a sitting day on Friday. It is the government's intention not to sit on 28, 29 and 30 November. I foreshadow that at this point and will inform the Senate through the usual processes in due course.

The House of Representatives has decided likewise not to sit next week. While it is not unusual for the Senate to sit without the House also sitting, if the Senate were to set in path legislation which requires consideration of the House before it is finalised, this would mean that the House would have to come back before the end of the year to finalise any amendments that were passed through the Senate. It would require an additional cost. In those circumstances, it is the government's view that it is better to structure the sitting this week so that the whole program can be completed this week. There are hours available to allow this to occur—to ensure that government business is finalised.

I note that the last time this type of motion was used to structure Senate business was in 1999, when the current opposition was in government. It is not the typical motion that I would usually have used. A motion that would allow the opposition to continue until a bill was finalised is another approach that could have been adopted. However, given the opposition's position that I outlined earlier, speaking on procedural motions and speaking on a range of bills that are noncontroversial—without the cooperation and constructive approach that the opposition has displayed in the past—the type of motion that is now constructed will, in the government's view, ensure that the legislative program is finalised this week.

I do not intend to take up any additional time because the more I talk the more I eat into the time available for the opposition to constructively contribute to the bills that are on the program. I just add, in relation to the matter that I was denied leave for—and that does not prevent another senator moving to amend the motion in this regard—that it is the government's view that it would be more appropriate to deal with the Afghanistan debate at the end of the urgency motions.