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

I move:

That the government business orders of the day listed on pages 3 and 4 of today’s Order of Business, under the heading “At 12.45 pm” be considered from 12.45 pm till not later than 2 pm today.

Question agreed to.

I move:

That the order of general business for consideration today be as follows:

(a)

general business orders of the day:No. 25––Protecting Children from Junk Food Advertising (Broadcasting Amendment) Bill 2008,No. 76––Renewable Energy Amendment (Feed-in-Tariff for Electricity) Bill 2008, andNo. 63––Building and Construction Industry (Restoring Workplace Rights) Bill 2008; and

(b)

orders of the day relating to government documents.

Question agreed to.

I move:

That government business notice of motion no. 1, relating to varying the hours of meeting and routine of business for today, be postponed to a later hour of the day.

I seek leave to speak to that for a moment.

Leave granted.

That item on the notice paper would indicate that there are extended hours for today and tomorrow. I think we can rule out tomorrow, just so that everyone understands. In respect of the hours for today, that will be considered later on today; we may seek additional hours. I think the opposition understand that, but it is worthwhile to ensure that everyone in the chamber is aware of that. There are a range of bills that we as a government do need to get through to allow us to complete the program for next week by next week, and therefore I would be seeking agreement later on today to arrange the hours so that we can complete the relevant business for today. There is, I guess, an expectation that we may finish those bills by an early mark today, or at least by a reasonable time. I do not intend to seek late hours tonight; I do expect that we can try to, with cooperation, achieve those bills by a reasonable hour.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition is aware of what the government’s agenda is. The opposition believes that the agenda can be completed within the regular hours of this sitting day. We are under no circumstances giving a commitment at this stage to extend hours, but we will discuss it with the government later in the day if that becomes necessary. We believe that the hours are sufficient for the program that the government has indicated to us.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens are not disposed towards making arrangements like this where there is no certainty at all about the end of the week and no compelling urgency; and where this debate is on—because of the want of more regular sitting hours, which is what we should be having instead of this sort of debate—extended sitting hours for the Senate. We will reserve our opinion until we see how things unfold.

Question agreed to.