BUSINESS

Mr BURKE (Watson—Minister for the Arts, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Cyber Security, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and Leader of the House) (09:43): The opposition have decided to progress the agenda of the government, and I thank them for that. I would remind the opposition of two things. First of all, the government is always ready for our legislation to go through the parliament the moment we introduce it—always.

The reason that we wait till the following week is at a request of the opposition to allow them to have their party room meeting. But I take it that the House of Reps tactics committee for the opposition have met and have decided they're ready to progress—I take the Manager of Opposition Business at his word—with any legislation that will help in the current circumstance with respect to fuel.

That was the commitment he made, and I will be moving an amendment to this motion to make that true. There is another relevant bill, a Fair Work Act amendment bill that was introduced today, and we will be taking him at his word that that will go through the House today as well. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Just a moment?

Mr Tehan: Could we see the amendment? Mr Burke: Not until I move it. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sit down, please.

Resume your seat—and a little less interjecting; we might get through this debate in an orderly, efficient manner, and get a result. The Leader of the House has the call. Mr BURKE: I just wish that this position that the opposition's House of Representatives tactics committee has taken was the same position that their Senate tactics committee has taken.

Right now, as I understand it, their Senate tactics committee are indicating in the other place that they want this bill to go off to a Senate inquiry, not to be put through straightaway. If the opposition members of the House have decided that this is urgent, can they tell their Senate colleagues, because nothing makes any difference out there to the rest of Australia until the bill has gone through both houses and is able to become law.

If their position is, 'Let's push it through here today, but we couldn't care less whether it becomes law,' that gets us nowhere. Part of the challenge here for those opposite is the fact that their leadership construction, if we can call it that, is something we have never seen before in the history of Federation. The deputy leader of the Liberals is no longer in this House.

They looked throughout the whole of the parliament and they couldn't find a single person to be their deputy leader, so the deputy leader of the Liberals is a senator. But the deputy leader of the Liberals, who is a senator, does not lead the Liberals in the Senate; there's another person who leads the Liberals in the Senate. In fact, the deputy leader of the Liberals in the Senate is still not the deputy leader of the Liberals.

And the Nationals have managed to have a leader of the Nationals who is in the Senate but is not the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate. I can see why they've ended up jumbled with all of this. My request is simple: if they have decided that they want to be constructive, and if they have looked across all the policy ideas that are out there and realised the way to be constructive is to back government legislation, then we welcome that.

But we take the Manager of Opposition Business at his word, when he said that the opposition stood ready to support any legislation dealing with the current circumstances—the fuel crisis. For that reason, I move the following amendment: That the motion be amended to read as follows: "That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the following from occurring immediately: (1) the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill 2026 and the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill 2026 being called on immediately to be debated concurrently and having precedence over all other business; (2) debate on the second reading of the bills proceeding without interruption, with the time for each speech limited to 5 minutes; (3) questions then being immediately put on any amendments moved to the motion for the second reading and on the second reading of the bills; (4) if required, a consideration in detail stage of each of the bills, with any detail amendments to be moved together, with: (a) one question to be put on all government amendments; (b) one question to be put on all opposition amendments; (c) separate questions then to be put on any sets of amendments moved by crossbench Members; and (d) one question to be put that the bills [as amended] be agreed to; (5) any remaining questions required to conclude consideration in detail being put from no later than 1 pm; and (6) when the bills have been agreed to, the question being put immediately on the third reading of each of the bills." I don't think we need 'any variation to these arrangements being moved by the Manager of Opposition Business', because we will be giving him what he wants.

I am really pleased they are willing to support the changes to the Fair Work Act, because when those principles to give decent conditions to, and to secure the future of, the trucking industry were put in the Fair Work Act, they opposed them. But apparently they only oppose the six-month consultation period. Mr Tehan: Point of order— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will give you the call— Mr BURKE: If I can explain— Mr Tehan: No, no— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Resume your seat, Manager of Opposition Business.

That is exactly the same point of order you raised with me only minutes ago. I asked you to resume your seat. Let's proceed in an orderly manner according to the standing orders, shall we?

Mr BURKE: We're heading to the weekend. I have two suggestions for weekend reading for the Manager of Opposition Business. There's a little book, and there's a big book.

They're both green, and they tell you the rules. When it comes to an amendment, there are two ways you can move an amendment in the House. The first way you move an amendment is you have the amendment circulated, in which case you then say, 'I move the amendment which has been circulated in my name.' I respect that the Manager of Opposition Business is very new to being a member of this House and hasn't seen this done before!

The second option, if you have not circulated it—and the shadow Treasurer knows this rule, so you can explain it to him because we made the shadow Treasurer do this when he didn't have one of his amendments circulated—is you read out every word of the amendment to the House. I just read out every word of the amendment to the House. I checked those words before I read them out to the House with the Clerk to make sure that they were in order.

When every word is read out, it doesn't need to be circulated. That's why, when someone moves 'that the question be put', they don't need to have a piece of paper that says the words 'that the question be put'. That's why when a whole lot of motions are moved in this House, if you say it out loud, you don't need to have circulated it.

The Manager of Opposition Business seems to have developed this concept that if he occasionally stands up and says, as slowly as possible, 'standing order 104(a)' that people think that means he knows the whole rulebook. No, it means he knows one paragraph on one page where he can stand up regularly and still get it wrong. So, for the Manager of Opposition Business, I simply say that we're taking the opposition at their word.

If you've come in here and said that you've done the about face; that you now want to be constructive; that you have recognised that the way to be constructive is to back the agenda of this government in making sure that we're looking after Australians, in making sure that we're dealing with people who might be engaging in price gouging and in making sure absolutely that we are securing a fair deal for the trucking industry at the current time; and that everything those opposite said last term is no longer true, then we welcome that.

We support it. Let's get it done before question time today. Without writing it on a piece of paper—but you can just hear me say the words—I will then, once the amendment is stated, move that the question be put.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The time for this debate has now expired. The question before the House is that the motion as amended be agreed to—sorry, I've got to move the actual amendment first. I'm moving the amendment as read just a moment ago.

I put that to the House. Honourable members interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Please—a bit of order. Mr Tehan: The noes have it!

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yelling at me doesn't work. Manager of Opposition Business, I just tried to bring order in the House, so yelling back at me is not a great tactic. Just so we are all clear, I called for the noes.

Now you can take your chance of talking respectfully to me. Mr Tehan: Deputy Speaker, the only reason I was trying to make it that the noes have it was because of the wall of noise over there— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sit down! For goodness sake, is a division required?

That's the simple response I require at this point. Mr Tehan: The noes have it. Division required.

The SPEAKER: The question before the House is the amendment moved by the Leader of the House to the motion by the Manager of Opposition Business be agreed to.