MOTIONS

Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (15:15): The government will not be supporting this suspension motion today. I imagine it's not going to be the last one for the week. There is a range of urgent matters before the Senate.

I accept that there are so many things this chamber could be debating this week, but there are also a number of very critical pieces of legislation—including the NDIS, our reforms to gambling law, implementing new arrangements for the news media bargaining incentive and dealing with the Treasury laws amendment bills—that this chamber has sought to debate as well.

On the point of urgency, there is no shortage of urgent matters before the Senate this week. Indeed, the Senate has just resolved, earlier today, to put in place arrangements to have those matters dealt with. Notwithstanding the important issue that's being raised by the motion and the fact that the government has already been clear about work that is being done around the integrated assessment tool, we should be allowed to get on to the program that the Senate resolved earlier today to deal with.

I note there have been people raising concerns about the amount of time for debate on certain pieces of legislation. These suspension motions will eat into that time. So, again, the government doesn't support this.

I know the chamber has had a lot of debate in relation to the aged-care reforms—important reforms that were supported, I should say, by this chamber last year—to make the aged-care system more sustainable. As the Leader of the Government in the Senate said during question time, we have invested billions of dollars into aged care since coming to government to make sure that we are able to deal with the demand that we're seeing in aged care in both in-home care and residential care, and also in the workers who provide care to elderly Australians.

Our commitment is very clear, but we do need to make sure it's on a sustainable footing. The Minister for Aged Care and Seniors is working through a whole range of issues, some of which have been raised in this chamber, and will continue to do so. But we need the Senate to get on with what is before it this week, which is the other pieces of legislation that are equally urgent and require the attention of the Senate.

Those have been listed in the program today. Last week, the Senate did not pass a single bill— Opposition senators interjecting— Senator GALLAGHER: Well, those opposite have woken up. I wasn't going to point the finger, but I would say a lot of time was spent last week not debating legislation.

People send us here to debate legislation. I accept that there's a whole range of other forms and customs and practice of this place. Opposition senators interjecting— Senator GALLAGHER: It would be great if we didn't need to put in place time management motions if the Senate actually got through legislation in a way that was manageable, but it doesn't seem to be able to do that.

That's the problem that time management has to deal with. Because, ultimately, if you waste an entire week not passing a single piece of legislation—and it wasn't government senators who were chewing up the time; let's be clear about that—then pressure will build, and you will have to put time management motions in place. On the suspension that Senator Allman-Payne seeks to move today, notwithstanding the very real issues facing aged care in this country, the reform work that's underway and the investment that we're making, the demand for aged care continues to grow.

It is an important issue that this chamber should debate. But there have been debates specifically on this issue in this chamber in recent weeks, and this week we have important reforms that the Australian people would like us to act on. The gambling and NDIS reforms are two of them, and I think our media friends are very keen on settling the news media bargaining incentive.

(Time expired) The PRESIDENT: I remind the chamber that Senator Allman-Payne was heard in silence. Senator Ruston was heard in silence. For some reason, people seem to think that the disrespect shown when Minister Gallagher got up is okay.

It is not okay. Every senator in this place deserves to be heard in silence whether they are agreed with or not.