Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Well, when I look up this bill on the Notice Paper, it says, 'The Senate agreed on 20 October that the committee report on 21 November.' When you look this up on the committee's website, that is what it says. Put the motion on then. Put it on the 24th. Let's have the vote on the 24th. At least the committee will have reported, and at least there will have been notice and there will have been respect shown to people, including the minister, about what the Senate parties' views are on this. Show respect to the minister, allow that to happen, allow the committee to report and have this vote on the 24th. Put the motion on notice. That is the approach that should have been followed, instead of, right at the end of formal motions, lodging this without any notice to anyone at all.

The approach that the Senate is taking—and it appears that the majority of the Senate is taking—on this motion is wrong. It sets a precedent, I think, that should worry any committee who are currently rolling up their sleeves and inquiring into any piece of legislation. 'Don't worry; you can be seven-eighths, one-quarter or two-thirds of the way through your committee inquiry, and the Senate might just discharge the whole thing because we don't care what the committee process that underpins the Senate means anymore. When we do it, we won't talk to the chair, we won't talk to people who are on the committee'—or, maybe, even worse, other people on the committee knew what was going to happen here, Senator Ciccone, but they just didn't tell the chair. That's even more disrespectful. Senator Shoebridge, you must have known about this, but you didn't tell the chair. Well, what an approach. You should pat yourself on the back for that! Honestly, how is the committee system going to work if members of the committee knew what was going to happen today on an inquiry before the committee and didn't have the courtesy to tell the chair?