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

I move:

That intervening business be postponed till after consideration of government business order of the day no. 2, (Customs Tariff Amendment (2009 Measures No. 1) Bill 2009 and the Excise Tariff Amendment (2009 Measures No. 1) Bill 2009).

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition is absolutely concerned about this motion and the disarray in which the government finds itself in relation to its agenda. Last week we had the spectre of the Deputy Prime Minister in the other place ridiculing the opposition for not knowing what its stance was in relation to Fair Work Australia—

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And the government interject, and they are quite right, because they have lobbed onto the table 50 pages of amendments that I still have not seen and that, as I understand it, have still not been circulated in the chamber. We have a government in disarray that cannot run the Senate, let alone run the country.

Rather than playing politics, they should have been preparing policy. Of course, Ms Gillard is a great one for playing the politics, but she cannot prepare the policy. What is the government so strong about in relation to these matters? That good faith bargaining should come to the fore. Well, what good faith bargaining has there been in relation to this legislation? None whatsoever. The phone calls from our shadow minister, Mr Keenan, go unanswered by the princess, Ms Gillard. She does not deign to return the calls, yet she has the audacity to tell every employer in this country that there is an obligation to engage in good faith bargaining. She does not engage in good faith bargaining but everybody else has to. This is what we are faced with as an opposition and as a country today.

When Labor came to government they said they would have a huge legislative framework for us to deal with—that the parliament would sit before Christmas. It never happened. Then it started sitting as late as a parliament has ever started sitting, in February. This year, the Senate parliamentary timetable will be the shortest that it has been in my lifetime—

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley interjecting—

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and yours, Senator Polley, I think. Since 1952, the Senate in a non-election year has never sat for a shorter time than it will this year. So it is hardly overwork that is causing the government the problem that they have with their own agenda. It is the politics that they have been playing that has caused them the problems.

In recent times we have had the government filibustering on its own policies. Remember the stimulus package—filibustering in their own committee stages because they had not got the policy framework right. They were busy playing the politics but not preparing the policy—all about the spin, not about the substance. After a while, if you play spin too long, the lack of substance catches up with you, and that is what Senator Ludwig and the Labor Party are confronted with this afternoon. They have been spinning too much and they do not have their agenda in order.

We as an opposition say that, if you cannot manage the Senate, you clearly cannot manage the country. It is no wonder that, at a time of high unemployment, soaring up to 5.2 per cent, a time of high industrial disputation—it is four times the amount that it was in the last year of the Howard government—and a time of crippling debt being thrown on our country, Labor are now still unable to come up with their substantive policy response.

They promised the Australian people during the 2007 election year and during the campaign that Forward with Fairness was it and that the legislation they would introduce would exactly mirror what was in Forward with Fairness. That was their solemn promise to the Australian people. Today we know, not only from the bill that has been put before us, that they have breached that promise. There is no doubt that, in the 50 extra pages of amendments that we are going to be confronted with today, there will be even more breaches of their policy.

It is little wonder, when they cannot arrange the Senate’s affairs in a timely, proper and substantive manner, that we have a government that is now running a policy to limit skilled migration intake on the one hand whilst on the other hand we have the illegal immigrant intake off our northern borders increasing. This is a government that has no policy vision for this country—it is all about spin, not substance.

It is nice to see some more amendments being circulated on the Fair Work Bill, but still not the Labor Party’s amendments. What we have always said, whilst in government and also in opposition, is that it is ultimately a matter for the government to seek to determine the agenda of the parliament. But, when they make a big song and dance about the need for the Fair Work Bill to be put through, accuse us in the other place of deliberately stalling the legislation and then come into this place the following week seeking to defer the legislation, Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd owe the Senate, the coalition and the Australian people an apology. They have sought to criticise, they have sought to vilify and they have sought to bully the Senate and the coalition into a particular position in relation to this legislation, in circumstances when the government did not even have its own bill ready. That is the hallmark of this government: it is all about the political line; it is not about getting the policy right. It is all about the spin, hoping to get that into the evening news cycle and not worrying about the substance. That is why the Manager of Government Business in the Senate has had to come into this place, humiliated, and ask for the deferral of the Fair Work Bill.

This is the point that needs to be remembered: the government is seeking, by this motion, to defer its own legislation, the Fair Work Bill. This is a government move. I wonder if Ms Gillard will take a dorothy dixer today in question time to vilify Senator Ludwig and the Labor Party in this place, who are moving the deferral of the Fair Work Bill legislation. Of course she will not. And we know why: because she is not interested in the substance of what she says—it is all about the spin that she hopes to try to get out there.

We say it is up to the government to determine their legislative priority. They can and they will. We will not stand in opposition to that. But what we will point out to the Australian people, and highlight yet again, is the audacity and arrogance of Ms Gillard, who complains that we in the opposition are not dealing with this matter. I say to you, as shadow minister representing the workplace relations portfolio in this place, that we could have got started on this bill, we could have kept going with this, but it is the government, the Labor Party, that are seeking to delay it—and we will remind the Australian people on every possible occasion that it was Labor’s delay, not our delay, when it comes to any criticism in that area. We will not be opposing the move by the government, but we do highlight the substantive shortcomings in relation to the management of the government’s agenda.

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

There has certainly been a lot of spin put today. It is my understanding—I am happy to be corrected about this—that the amendments in relation to the Fair Work Bill have been circulated, so it is not correct for Senator Abetz to say that they have not been circulated. I may have misheard him in the spray that he was providing in relation to this issue. It may of course be masking the inability of the opposition to come to grips with how they are actually going to deal with the Fair Work Bill itself. But, in any event, the government stands ready to deal with the legislative agenda for this week. That includes two substantive bills, which we do know will take a considerable amount of time to deal with. Both of these bills, the customs tariff amendment bill and related bill—broadly known as the ‘alcopops bills’—and the Fair Work Bill in committee, will take some time. As I understand it, and I am happy to be corrected—

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It had not been circulated; it is just being circulated now.

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

Senator Abetz, you had your go. As I understand it the government was in a position to start at noon today—and still is, quite frankly. If it is the wish of the opposition to proceed with it today, we stand ready to proceed with it. As I understand it, we made a reasonable offer, given that the amendments have only been circulated today, so that the opposition could have an opportunity to examine those amendments—although the broad number and type would already have been understood, as I understand it. In that case the government was prepared to accede to that request and deal with the alcopops bills first, to allow the opposition time to deal with those amendments and provide a view, so that we could deal with the committee stage of the Fair Work Bill in a reasonable way and as expeditiously as possible so we could finalise the agenda for this week.

However, if the opposition now wish to change their view about this and do not want the available time to deal with the amendments so that we can start on the Fair Work Bill tomorrow, then we can start on the Fair Work Bill, if that is their wish. My understanding is that we are responding to what the opposition was seeking, but, as I said, we are quite happy to deal with it. But what we do not want is the opposition to say, ‘We need a little bit more time to deal with the amendments,’ and to then end up filibustering. It is about managing the chamber. The government has put a reasonable proposition to the opposition, the Greens and the two Independents so that we can focus our attention on the legislation in a proper way—unlike what I could call Senator Abetz’s spray in this place, which was not helpful. It did not ensure that the government, the opposition, the Greens and the two Independents are able to deal with the legislation. We have now had to burn time, it seems, while we deal with some spurious allegations that have been be raised by the opposition which are, as far as I am informed, not correct.

Therefore, I am looking for the opposition to say whether they intend to support this motion as a sensible way forward so that we can deal with the legislation in a sensible way. We do not intend to filibuster on any of the legislation. We want these bills dealt with as expeditiously as possible and as early as possible. These sets of bills are both crucial. One deals with alcopops and needs to be dealt with this week. For the second, we are proposing to ensure that the opposition, the Greens and the two Independents have sufficient time to deal with both the government amendments and their own amendments in committee in an expeditious way. On that basis, if Senator Abetz is joining us in this process, then we should be able to deal with this legislation early in the week, and that would certainly please the government.

This is a position that I am open to and it is the understanding that I had. If that has changed between this morning and now, then I am only too happy to be advised of that and we can deal with it. It is not the case—and I refute this—that this government does not stand ready to deal with both sets of bills, the Fair Work Bill and the alcopops bills, in any order that the opposition might want to proceed with them. The government is only minded to concede to that to ensure that every party can focus its attention on these bills in the appropriate way so that we do not delay but deal with these in an expeditious way.

Question agreed to.