Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I just wonder where the Australian Greens were during the carbon tax debate? I think I can recall them supporting time management motions. I think I can recall them supporting gag motions.

I point out that despite the Greens' protestations this motion actually does neither of those things. What this motion does is provide for additional time, soon, for the consideration of this legislation. The opposition is prepared to support this motion to give up its own private senators' business time tomorrow morning, the opposition is prepared to give up its own general business time tomorrow afternoon and the opposition is prepared to give up consideration of government documents. That is not seeking to curtail debate. What that is doing is seeking to facilitate debate. If you look at the ordinary business hours for tomorrow, there will be something of the order of seven hours for consideration. There is no guillotine at the end of the day. The debate will go as long as the debate goes. So I think that the sorts of arguments that the Greens are putting up would actually have been better made on some of the motions that they and the government together supported in relation to curtailing debate on the carbon tax.

As I have indicated, we are supporting this motion. We think that these bills should be debated sooner rather than later because four years ago the effective border protection regime of the Howard government was dismantled by the Australian Labor Party. We predicted at that time that nothing good would come of it and that it would only provide a product for people smugglers to sell, and they have done that.

The government have belatedly seen the error of their ways, so we do not want to unnecessarily delay or curtail debate on this legislation. We think it should be debated quickly. Let the debate go where it may, but we are very keen to see this legislation passed this week because this legislation directly affects people's lives. We do not want to see people put in harm's way for any longer than necessary, so we will be supporting this motion to facilitate debate and to provide the opportunity for debate. But, as I say, we will not ourselves be seeking to unnecessarily delay this legislation. Colleagues will have contributions to make, but we do want to see this legislation passed this week.