Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I see that Senator Coonan is not here at the moment and we might want to put it off until a later part of the day, but I will just inform everybody what it is about. I seek leave to move a motion to vary the routine of business for today and I will explain it before I get leave granted. What it does is that on Thursday, 25 September 2008:

(a)

consideration of general business and consideration of committee reports, government responses and Auditor-General’s reports under standing order 62(1) and (2) shall not be proceeded with;

(b)

the routine of business from 12.45 pm till not later than 2 pm, and from not later than 4.30 pm shall be government business only; and

(c)

divisions may take place after 4.30 pm.

That effectively means that we allow time between what would otherwise be noncontroversial time to deal with government business, which is the condensate bill. The opposition have kindly given up their general business to additionally deal with the condensate bill, if necessary. And because divisions would otherwise be postponed to 4.30 pm onwards, we need to move that so that divisions can take place. It would otherwise be an ordinary Thursday. We would then move the committee reports, if we needed to, so that we could then continue to deal with the condensate bill only to conclusion, that is, the third reading stage. Because it is a request and there are government requests, it would need to go over to the House and come back before the third reading could be dealt with.

We think that with a bit of luck we might be able to deal with that today. Therefore we do not need to deal with the Friday sitting. I have postponed the motion to a later hour in the day, during the afternoon, so that if we did need to come back and revisit it we could deal with it at that point. Procedurally, this allows us to have quite a lengthy piece of government business. I thank the opposition for agreeing to provide that to the government so that we can then proceed with the condensate bill.

There will be a question that will arise in respect of this when we get to the consideration. Should it be in committee and be referred, there will be a question as to what we do while we wait for the matter to be requested and go over to the House and come back. Depending on the time of day we could go back to opposition general business and we could give leave for a particular topic they might want to debate at that point or we could go on with second reading speeches dealing with family law amendment or some other matter by agreement, but not to the conclusion—matters that we can deal with later on.

I thought it was worth while just explaining all of that for the transcript so that there cannot be a mistake in respect of the issues that I have put forward and my understanding of the agreement that we have. I am happy for Senator Coonan to add to that. So, I seek leave to move that motion. Senator Coonan may want to speak before leave is granted.

Leave granted.

I move:

That, on Thursday, 25 September 2008:

(a)

consideration of general business and consideration of committee reports, government responses and Auditor-General’s reports under standing order 62(1) and (2) shall not be proceeded with;

(b)

the routine of business from 12.45 pm till not later than 2 pm, and from not later than 4.30 pm shall be government business only; and

(c)

divisions may take place after 4.30 pm.

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I missed most of what Senator Ludwig said but I think he has outlined our agreement appropriately, as I apprehend it and as has been related to me by Senator Abetz. The purpose of this cooperative arrangement between the coalition and the government is to enable the condensate bills to be debated. Because it is very difficult to give an indication as to just how long it will take, the proposal set out in the motion—perhaps I could describe it this way—may put in place arrangements that are not required. Rather than inconvenience colleagues and inconvenience the Senate we have agreed between us that we will see how it goes and then we will be in a position to deal with the motion if it needs to be relied on by the government.

Question agreed to.