Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I think that Senator Pocock has also got some questions. I'll be very quick. To what you said there, Minister, my feeling is you've got tripartisan support for giving you those special powers to act when you need it. Everyone wants to see strengthened biosecurity. The issue here is that you're taking away our ability to scrutinise it. You didn't actually address the issue. The issue is that once this passes today it immediately goes into law, but the Senate should have its required number of days to scrutinise this.

You've just tabled the addendum to the explanatory memorandum containing the key information. That was requested by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee 'as soon as practicable, noting the importance of these explanatory materials as a point of access to understanding the law and, if needed, as extrinsic material to assist with interpretation'. You've just tabled that now. I haven't had a chance to read it, nor has anyone else. I should have 15 Senate sitting days to do that, and if there were concerns I could raise them with you or with other senators, and perhaps we could have that debate.

That's all we're asking for—just the chance to be able to do our jobs. We're not saying we're not going to support your abilities and special powers under this legislation to do your job. We just need to do our jobs and scrutinise this, and you've taken that away today. I accept it's a small number of things, but the point still stands that you are reducing the power of the Senate and parliamentary oversight in this legislation today.