Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Do you see how sensitive the Australian Labor Party are when their issues are exposed to the Australian public through the medium of telecommunications that we now have? Today, we have to deal with the Competition and Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill, a very important bill; the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Bill, perhaps one of the most significant human rights bills for some time and I know Senator Brandis is very keen to have a full-scale debate on that; the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill; and the Social Security Amendment (Student Income Support Reforms) Bill. That all has to be dealt with by 1 pm today—in two short hours. Why do they have to be dealt with by 1 pm today when there are three days left in the parliamentary sitting calendar? We could be debating those bills at length, as we should in this chamber, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. In addition to that I understand from having a look at the Notice Paper that there is a bill on migration, the Deterring People Smuggling Bill 2011, that needs to be addressed. I guess we are going to do that after 1 pm. We will start getting these pressures: 'People have booked flights and everyone wants to go home.' I have heard interjections saying: 'Why are you speaking? We have heard this all before.' I am speaking in the hope that someone in the media might actually give a front-page focus to the travesty of democracy that the Greens and the Australian Labor Party have imposed upon the people of Australia. I notice this Courier-Mail headline: 'King Rat'. I would like to see a front page that says, 'Travesty of democracy', and details the bills that have been rammed through this parliament without one person speaking on them, without one person being able to raise objections. I have mentioned that there are several bills plus an important migration bill yet to be done. Here we are guillotining them through so that we have only a few minutes to speak on them. I suspect we will not even get to some of them. They will joining the list of 20 bills that have been dealt with without any debate whatsoever.

I finish on this note: when there is so much business for this parliament to do, why are we taking away three days that have been listed for more than six months as part of the parliamentary calendar? That is a disgrace. It is a travesty of democracy that the Greens political party and the Australian Labor Party would shut the parliament down when there is so much business yet to do. I remind senators that they are paid to be in this chamber. They are paid to debate legislation. They are not paid to be jumping on first-class aircraft and slipping over to South Africa for a jolly couple of weeks, as the Greens clearly intend to do and as a number of Labor Party people intend to do as well. I urge senators to vote against this motion and ensure that we have the next three days for parliamentary debate.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Ludwig's) be agreed to.

The Senate divided. [12:21]

(The President—Senator Hogg)

Question agreed to.