David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I think it's concerning that we have limited debate like this on a bill that creates a new institution—an institution that I think is overdue, and I welcome the government bringing forward this legislation. But I simply do not see the need to constrain debate like this, to the point where the minister has to get up and give her second reading speech in Committee of the Whole, where we have 40 minutes, and chews up 10 minutes giving a speech which could have been done, had senators been allowed to speak on this. Regardless of what you may think—and I strongly disagree with many of the objections to this bill—people should be able to have their say and actually scrutinise things in Committee of the Whole. But here we are, coming up to time, and a whole bunch of senators haven't even been able to say what they think about this bill. The creation of a new institution does require scrutiny. We need to get this right and set it up for success. To guillotine this with almost no notice, with a bunch of people still on the second reading speakers list, I think, is very regrettable.

But I say just briefly, as a senator for the ACT, that it was great to see a commitment from the government to have the ACDC based in Canberra. This is something that I have been pushing for, since the government announced it in the last election campaign, because it makes good, practical sense. When thinking about the ACDC in Canberra, my team actually came up with a bit of a logo, which I'm happy to table if the government would like to use it. I think it's a pretty good start. It would probably save a thousand bucks maybe.