Senator O'BRIEN (9:42 AM) —by leave—I understand that the effect of the amended motion which Senator Campbell has moved, and has been granted leave to amend in the way that he has outlined, would be that general business not proceed today, that there be a dinner break, that we proceed to complete the legislation on the Notice Paper —effectively the youth wages legislation and the RFA legislation—and that the Senate would rise upon the completion of those bills.

The opposition supports the position advanced by the government; indeed, it was the opposition that proposed that this legislation be dealt with. We had, of course, as Senator Faulkner said yesterday, put before the government a proposal that we proceed to complete the RFA legislation by sitting until completion today, and we offered to give up general business to facilitate that occurring.

We saw yesterday the remarkable events that took place in the House of Representatives when Minister Reith made the outrageous suggestion that the opposition had refused to permit the youth wages legislation, which is on the Notice Paper for today, from proceeding. Of course, that was absolutely untrue. The opposition had not been asked to facilitate that debate. Indeed, it was always within the control of the government, as everyone here knows, to put that legislation on the Notice Paper and, indeed, it was on the red last Monday. The only issue at that time was whether it was competent to be there, because it had not been through the selection of bills process that was to be completed at a meeting at 4.15 p.m. on Tuesday. The advice given at that time was that, of course, the government could list the bill and it could proceed pending that. So it sat on the Notice Paper, second in order behind the RFA.

During the week we have seen the situation where there has been quite a deal of debate—not by the opposition, I might say, but particularly by Senator Brown and by various Democrat senators—to the RFA legislation, which took the debate through to yesterday afternoon. As I said, in the intervening time we had the outrageous suggestion by Mr Reith in the House of Representatives in which he misled the House of Representatives by saying that the opposition had put a barrier in the way of dealing with the youth wages legislation. So we now see that the government has put forward the youth wages legislation as a priority, and it has dropped the priority for the RFA legislation.

One has to say that if this thing had been properly managed, and if the government did indeed have a priority for the youth wages legislation, it could have been listed at any time as a priority over the RFA legislation, but it was not. It was only after matters blew up yesterday, following those outrageous statements by Mr Reith, that the government decided to pull the RFA Bill and to seek to commence the second reading debate on the youth wages legislation. The opposition has never been worried about the debate coming on; in fact, we would be, as indicated by our support of the motion today, anxious for that debate to proceed, just as we are for the RFA legislation to follow the proper course. The RFA legislation has been on the Notice Paper for a great many months, and the government has been very tardy in pursuing that. The Forest Protection Society and others in the timber industry have been very critical of the government for leaving that matter sitting in abeyance and giving it a low priority.

We have been saying, effectively, that we want that legislation dealt with. We have announced our position, and we will debate that legislation to completion today, just as we will debate to completion the youth wages legislation, which is before the chamber at the moment. But, one would have to say that the situation that we find ourselves in, and the fact that the Senate will obviously sit until the small hours of the morning, probably at the earliest to complete this legislation, is a circumstance which has been brought on not because the opposition has been reluctant to properly deal with the government's legislation but because the government has not managed its legislative program properly.

If there is to be a late sitting, we support it. If there is to be a late sitting, we will be here. But one would have to say that the government should improve its approach to manage ment of legislation in this chamber and, if there is to be a priority for legislation, let us not make those decisions on the hop. Hopefully, the Prime Minister will speak to Mr Reith about the way in which he misled the Australian parliament and the Australian public about the processes in the Senate. He misled the Australian people by suggesting that the opposition has been putting a barrier in the way of dealing with this legislation. Frankly, Madam President, what Mr Reith said in the House of Representatives yesterday was absolutely untrue.