Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

What an utter mockery of parliamentary democracy we have here. I rise to speak on the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Regional Commercial Radio) Bill 2011 [2012]. I am the first speaker on this piece of legislation and I have fewer than 3½ minutes to make my contribution, which of course will leave absolutely no time for any other senator in this place to make any contribution whatsoever. I know full well that on this side many senators are interested and concerned about regional radio services. I know that Senator Fisher wanted to speak on this bill; I know that Senator Macdonald wanted to speak on this bill; I know that Senator Eggleston wanted to speak on this bill; I know that Senator McKenzie wanted to speak on this bill. We have a number of senators who care about regional radio who wanted to have their say.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

Senator Conroy interjects that we are supporting this bill. We may well be supporting this bill, but that does not mean that it is unworthy of proper consideration in this chamber. That does not mean that it is unworthy of proper debate. It is an utter mockery to come into this place and be told: 'You've got three minutes to debate an entire piece of legislation.' It is a piece of legislation that has been on the Notice Paper since 2011 and the government has several amendments to it. The government itself is deleting several pages of its own bill. Again, we support that and we welcome the fact that the government has made that gesture and has done that in response to concerns that we raised, but it would have been nice to have had the opportunity in this place to examine the implications and the reasons for the changes to this legislation.