Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know it's a sensitive issue, but I thank you very much for your ruling there, Acting Deputy President McLachlan. As I was saying in my speech earlier today, it is disappointing to see the opposition again not bring forward a bill that the Senate can deal with today that actually deals with real issues that matter to working people. It is disappointing that we are here, on the first day of the second sitting week, having to deal with a bill that is, quite frankly, redundant and will not have any practical effect on working people, even by their own recommendation. Recommendation No. 3 makes it very clear that, in the event the appeal was denied by the High Court, we should not even proceed with this bill. Yet we're here dealing with a bill that shouldn't even be spoken about today, because it has no practical impact. But what else are we going to talk about today, other than old legislation the opposition are bringing forward from the 46th Parliament?

As we stated the first time this bill came to the Senate—when the opposition's now environment spokesperson and the former assistant minister for forestry vehemently opposed it—we do not support piecemeal amendments to the EPBC Act. That's very important. We don't. It's important that we do these in a much more coordinated, collaborative fashion, rather than this piecemeal approach that we saw in the previous parliament, which I really hope we don't see in this new parliament going forward. Our approach—