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

I am talking about this legislation and that the consultation in relation to the universal service obligation reform is deficient. There are a lot of other problems with this legislation—things that should be addressed in debate in this chamber, but they are not being addressed because the Greens political party and their leader have combined with the government to curtail debate on this and other important legislation. As I mentioned, when it comes to giving leave to vary these rules when it relates to the Labor Party the Greens fall over themselves to agree, but when others seek the approval of the Senate to digress slightly the Greens are not at all interested.

How can we address the issues in this particular legislation in what is now 20 minutes? I repeat: while I always appreciate prayers at the beginning of the day it is contrary to the strict letter of the motion that actually dealt with the time for discussion. We are not even having 30 minutes for this legislation; we are having 29 or fewer minutes.

The coalition questions the need for an entire new bureaucracy to administer the universal service obligation. I would like to question the minister at length about the need for that bureaucracy but are we going to have a chance? We have now 18 minutes left to deal with every aspect of this particular legislation, thanks to the Greens. I know Senator Ludlam makes a contribution to this area of law. Is he happy with the fact that he is going to—