Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion, as circulated, relating to consideration of government amendments to formal business.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice standing in my name, I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to the consideration of government amendments to formal business.

You all know why we are here. Day after day, hour after hour, what the government is doing is delaying the Senate by deliberately moving amendment after amendment after amendment, buying itself more time, more time, more time, in notices of motion. It is important today that we suspend standing orders to have a good look at this motion and then, I would hope, pass it. Why? Because the government is wasting the time of the Senate. When you waste the time of the Senate, quite frankly, you abuse the privileges that the taxpayers of Australia have given us to come in here and actually deal with the matters that are of most important concern to them.

This motion represents the coalition's determination to step up and take control of the chamber, because the government is losing complete control of the chamber, and ensure we cut through the fog of delay, because, we all know, when we look at the Notice Paperhere it is—this is now hours and hours this afternoon doing nothing more and nothing less than each amendment to a motion dividing and the government buying itself more time to, quite frankly and disappointingly, do what it should be doing—that is, debate the very important issues that matter to the Australian taxpayer.

So, quite frankly, if the government won't be disciplined with its time, we will join with the crossbenches to take control of the chamber and ensure we put back in place some form of procedural rules. Motion after motion after motion, hours and hours of delay—this government has seen fit to amend rather than progress, with motion after motion, with amendments delayed and shuffled around the Notice Paper as though, quite frankly, the Senate's time is just something we play with. The taxpayers don't send us here and say, 'Do what you like. Spend hours crossing over backwards and forwards doing, quite frankly, absolutely nothing but pandering to a government agenda that is nothing more and nothing less than delay, delay, delay because they don't want to provide the Australian taxpayer with transparency.'

It is not often I try to suspend standing orders but this is an important item and that is why we need to suspend standing orders. If the government will not debate the issues that matter to the Australian taxpayer, we will help them to do just that. We have a government not willing to stand at the dispatch box and argue for its program, not willing to stand here and answer questions on its legislation so the Australian people properly understand what the government is doing to them; instead, we see procedural motion after procedural motion after division after division. When people say, 'What did you do in the Senate today?' I have to say, 'We shuffled paper on behalf of the Australian taxpayer courtesy of the Labor government that, quite frankly, has no respect for the Australian taxpayer.' So, again, it is important today that the Senate unite, pass this motion to bring a little bit of decorum, a little bit of procedural fairness back to the chamber.

The motion is very simple. All it says is the government has to make amendments to the motion. We accept that. We will not stop the government from making the amendments but we will stop wasting the Senate's time, our time, the Liberal and National Party, the crossbench's time. There is little time in this place to put your case. To the people in the gallery, we are actually doing this on behalf of you, the taxpayer. I assume you don't want us to spend hours of the day just sitting on each side of the chamber because the government does not have the guts to come in here and actually answer questions on transparency.

The motion is simple. You will get to put your amendments, no issues at all; however, you will not divide on each one. What you are going to do is put one amendment. We are going to put them all together—so if you want your amendments to get up, they will—and we will then ensure we dispense properly of the business of the Senate. As I said, if the government are not prepared to be the adults in this chamber and actually properly respect the Australian taxpayer, the opposition will be.