Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

And so, Mr President, if there is any suggestion of procedural fairness and decency, one would imagine that, if a senator is to be called upon to provide an explanation to the Senate, that senator should have a formal communication made to him or her indicating that the Senate requires something of that senator. In this motion that requirement is deemed to have been required before he actually receives the notice. In other words, this motion says that if he fails to comply to something before midday he will be deemed to be in breach, but the Senate only decided this after midday. The clever tacticians on the Labor side have really got themselves into a dilemma yet again. Like their own leader's questions being ruled out of order yesterday, we now have their own tactic in absolute disarray. How can somebody comply with something if the deadline is set and voted on after the deadline?

This is an absolute and utter shambles, but fairness clearly demands and determines that any resolution of the Senate be communicated to the senator so that senator can respond to it. If the deadline you give to the senator is midday but you actually pass the motion past midday and say, 'Guess what? You are caught already; you're already in breach because of our motion,' it shows how bad the Labor Party's tactics are or, indeed, that they have no understanding of what appropriate procedure or fairness is. If the Labor Party genuinely wanted midday, they should have curtailed their speakers and should have had Senator Carr move immediately that the motion be put, rather than wait until a circumstance where the vote was taken after midday.