BUDGET

Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE (Queensland) (15:43): I seek leave to make a one-minute statement. The PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: The government has said that the previous two similar motions shouldn't have been brought to the floor of the Senate.

The Community Affairs Legislation Committee tried to get a meeting to discuss this, and the chair refused to have one. We have done everything we can not to bring this to the floor of the Senate, and we would ask that, in the future, when committee members are asking to have a meeting to discuss the program, we be able to have one—not going around to other senators who aren't on the committee and trying to ask them if they can change it.

We are over. We have tried very hard to do this the way that we should, and we haven't gotten anywhere, so we are using the floor of the Senate, and that is appropriate.