BUSINESS
Senator CHANDLER (Tasmania) (13:30): Pursuant to contingent notice standing in the name of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, I move: That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent further considerations of the bills without a limitation of time. Let's be very clear about what is happening here. It is 1.30 pm on Thursday, and we have hit the guillotine on the most significant tax changes that we have seen in this country in a generation—rushed through a Senate inquiry process, rushed through this chamber.
We have had limited time in the Committee of the Whole this afternoon to ask questions of the minister. I recognise the minister has sat here and answered questions, but we have not even been able to touch the sides on the consideration of the amendments more holistically. The Committee of the Whole is meant to be one of the most important safeguards in this chamber.
It is where we examine legislation line by line, it is where we examine amendments line by line and it is where we properly test the technical detail without artificial time limits. We are a chamber of scrutiny, and this is where scrutiny actually happens. But what we are seeing today is the exact opposite of that process.
As I said, this bill has been rushed from the start. It has the hallmarks of legislation that has been written in haste. And when legislation is written in haste, it demands deeper scrutiny; it does not demand less.
Instead, what do we get? We get an inquiry process that can only be described as a sham. It was an inquiry where serious questions were put forward by senators: questions from stakeholders, questions about how this legislation would actually operate.
Those questions were not properly answered by officials at that Senate inquiry. They were avoided. They were delayed.
They were brushed aside—and I will get to what happened with the questions on notice in a moment. Now, after a rushed drafting process and an inquiry that failed to genuinely test the bill, we arrive at the final stage. The government's answer is to turn up here and say they were unable to answer certain questions.
They can't provide the relevant modelling for others, and now they want to shut down debate altogether, before we have even been able to fulsomely debate the amendments that are here today, and pass this legislation. At one point, there were 20 amendments listed on the running sheet for this legislation today. Twenty amendments!
That is not the sign of a bill that is already ready. That is not the sign of a bill that doesn't need fixing. Many of these are the government's own amendments to its own bill.
We are being asked to consider legislation that was drafted quickly. It wasn't properly scrutinised through the inquiry process, and it is now being substantially amended at the last minute. And, at precisely the moment that those amendments should be examined in detail, we have regrettably hit the guillotine on this debate.
That means senators will not have the opportunity to properly interrogate these amendments to test their consequences or ask the questions that should already have been answered. This isn't actually about us. We need to remember in this place that this is not about us; this is about the people that we represent.
When I talk to Australian businesses and when I get letters or emails from my constituents, I know that there are real and genuine concerns about the impact of these tax changes on them. It is our responsibility as senators to come into this place, to ask these questions and have them answered by the government. It is our responsibility to come into this place to try and make this legislation better.
We have not been able to fulsomely do that today because we have not had enough time to consider the amendments. Even the minister has acknowledged that these bills contain complex details. If that is the case, these complexities must be tested.
Instead, we are being told, in effect: 'Trust us. We're the government. There's nothing to worry about here.
All of the concerns that have been raised are nothing to worry about.' We've been asked to read the amendments quickly. We've been asked to try to understand exactly what they mean, very quickly. We haven't had the opportunity to ask further questions of the government about how these amendments work or what they might mean for the legislation or what they might mean for Australians.
Instead, we are being forced to proceed to a vote. What makes matters worse—I think we need to be very aware of this—is that the answers to questions on notice coming out of the Senate inquiry last week were only circulated to the relevant Senate committee at 11.55 am today. The committee-of-the-whole process was already underway when those QONs were provided to the chamber.
So we are being asked to consider complex legislation and deal with 20 amendments, and we're still receiving basic answers as the debate is already underway. This is the guillotine in action, and this chamber should not accept it.