Senator CARR (9:54 AM) —by leave—The Manager of Government Business in the Senate has made a number of points which have highlighted the approach that the opposition has taken in terms of its cooperation and its intention to assist with consideration of the legislative package that the government has brought forward. He has also highlighted what he sees as Mr Reith's statements with regard to the attitude to the opposition. The attitude of the opposition was spelt out by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate yesterday. He made it perfectly clear that, as far as we are concerned, it is the responsibility of the government to bring legislation forward and it is the responsibility of senators to seriously consider government legislation, to put their view and to debate that legislation.

There is always an interest in how long the debate should take. Senator Ian Campbell says that he approached me with regard to the issue of a guillotine for the RFA Bill. That is true; he did. He put to me in, I might say, a less than serious manner, his view in the context of what he has always put: that there ought to be a guillotine on all legislation; that there ought to be `time management'—I believe that is the trendy, sort of politically correct expression that is used; and that this government believes that there ought to be limited debate in the Senate as a matter of course. He also knows that my response to him was what the Labor Party's response has been on all occasions: that we do not support that approach to the management of important legislation.

Senator Ian Campbell interjecting—

Senator CARR —I think Senator Robert Ray would have said something to you about being serious: `Don't come to us with your trendy terms; come to us with what you really mean.' Of course, you have now explained what you really meant was that there ought to be a curtailment of debate as a matter of course in the Senate, which is not a position that we support. We think that legislation should be debated on its merits, that amendments should be considered thoroughly and properly, and so we encourage a thorough examination of government legislation.

Senator Brown has been criticised because, perhaps, he has been a bit too thorough. There are occasions when I think there are legitimate concerns about the length of time that is taken on a particular proposition before the Senate. It may be argued that spending the entire week on a particular bill may be a little excessive. Senator Brown is entitled to pursue his views on this matter, just as the rest of the Senate is entitled to pursue its views as to the way in which this legislation is processed.

But at no time did this government come to us and say that they wanted to bring on the youth wages bill, which is what they should have done if they were serious about having the matter dealt with as a matter of priority. The priority was set by the government at all times. The government determined that it wanted to deal with the RFA Bill first. The government now says that it wants to change the priority, which is in direct response to the criticisms that were made by Senator Faulkner yesterday where he highlighted the hypocrisy and total dishonesty of Mr Reith in suggesting, as he did, first of all at a doorstop yesterday morning—

The PRESIDENT —Senator Carr, I think that is a statement that is not in order, and I would ask you to withdraw it.

Senator CARR —I will withdraw anything that is not in order. What I would suggest to the Senate is that it is totally inappropriate and disingenuous for Mr Reith to announce at a doorstop yesterday morning that the Labor Party was, first of all, changing its position on junior wage rates and that we had gone on some sort of rampage to prevent the consideration of the government's legislation in this chamber. That was a position which was totally wrong. It was a position that was totally untrue.

What we are seeing now from Mr Reith is a pattern of behaviour—a pattern of behaviour which goes to his credibility. What is apparent to us all is that Mr Reith is quite prepared to say and do anything if it suits his narrow political purposes. You cannot deal with a bloke who constantly seeks to misrepresent the facts. Of course, what we have here is a situation which has nothing really to do with the way in which we treat young people in this country, but has everything to do with Mr Reith's positioning for the leadership of the Liberal Party. His representation of these events has been totally disingenuous. As I say, the man is quite prepared to say or do anything.

In the House of Representatives yesterday, Mr Reith said:

Our understanding was that the Senate would deal with this matter this week and now we find that, to the convenience of the Labor Party, this issue is not going to be dealt with by the Senate.

That is a statement which is totally untrue. As I say, the man is prepared to say or do anything to suit his narrow political purposes. What we have seen with this motion before the chamber is what was always the case: the government determines the political priority that it gives to the legislative program. The management of the program in this Senate is the government's responsibility. Our job is to see that matters are carefully considered and to ensure that there is proper accountability of the executive, which we do effectively and will continue to do effectively.

The motion before the Senate is one that we support. We do acknowledge there is a need to have a break to allow people, particularly staff, to at least meet minimum conditions within this chamber. However, we do say that it is important for us to consider both pieces of legislation, and we are prepared to support the government in its move to see that both these pieces of legislation are dealt with today. I trust that the Senate as a whole agrees with this, and I trust that Mr Reith will desist from his gross misrepresentations, his untruths, his distortions and his crass political manoeuvres which, as I say, are aimed more at his colleagues within the Liberal Party than at informing the Australian public about the truth of the way in which this parliament actually functions.