Senator BROWN (4:53 PM) —Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. I do want to speak on this matter—

Senator McKiernan —It is a little up in the air though.

Senator BROWN —Senator McKiernan says that it is a little up in the air. I think it might actually go into orbit before the day is through. What we are seeing here today is a move by the government to have the Sydney Airport Demand Management Amendment Bill 2001 brought on later in the day and a report being handed down now. I can report that to you, Mr Acting Deputy President, because my office has been told that that is going to be the case. I object to that. If we are going to function properly as the Senate, we need to be able to read an important report like this before a matter like that is dealt with.

I was informed this morning that there may have been some difficulty as far as the government was concerned about having enough legislation to bring forward, but the government then came forward, as the Notice Paper indicated it would, with a very important bill on the Great Barrier Reef. We were in the business of discussing that before lunch. That bill was to increase penalties for people who wreck ships on the Great Barrier Reef due to negligence or otherwise—spill oil and so on. I think it is an extraordinarily important bill. But suddenly it is going to disappear off the agenda and on comes the Sydney Airport Demand Management Amendment Bill within a very short space of this report coming from the Senate committee. Why is that?

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESI-DENT —Senator Brown, can I just interrupt for a moment?

Senator BROWN —Yes.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESI-DENT —You do not appear to be talking to the matter before the chamber in relation to the matter presented by Senator McGauran. You are canvassing other issues that are not pertinent to the matter before the chair.

Senator BROWN —I will come to that.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESI-DENT —Later on there may be a government matter that comes before the chair, but there is not one at the moment.

Senator BROWN —Yes, I thank you. Your accommodation of the comments I have made was just to forewarn the government that they may not be going to get the easy ride that they thought when it comes to that later matter, which brings me back to the report.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESI-DENT —Thank you.

Senator BROWN —It is a very important—

Senator Heffernan —That is not as bad as a call from Tom Donnigan though.

Senator BROWN —I think we had a non-constructive intervention there, so I will ignore it. That came from Senator Heffernan.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESI-DENT —To the report, thank you.

Senator BROWN —The report is into the provisions of the Sydney Airport Demand Management Amendment Bill. I have not had time to read it. The matter at hand here is: are we going to see, in the run to privatisation of the airport at Mascot, provision for the exclusion of domestic and regional smaller planes by a squeeze? Given the limited facilities of the airport in Sydney—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESI-DENT —Order! Senator Brown, we are really talking about a motion to print the report.

Senator BROWN —Yes, and I am talking about what we will see if it is printed.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESI-DENT —Continue.

Senator BROWN —I will make it very brief, I can assure you. The question is whether, when this report is printed, we are going to see that the move is on to squeeze the regional airlines out to put them across to Bankstown to give less and less time—in fact no new time in the future—as the big jets continue to come in in increasing numbers to Sydney airport. That has huge ramifications for the people living in the suburbs. That is what the debate will be about later in the day. The big question that is going to hang over us is the hurried nature of this. I would like to see this printing matter adopted; I would like to see the Senate, once the report is printed, have proper time to consider it. I do not think we are going to get that, Mr Acting Deputy President, because the government wants to get on with getting that legislation through, to selling Sydney airport and to paving the way, as best it can, to free up its options for an election in July or August.

Question resolved in the affirmative.