Senator IAN MACDONALD (1:37 PM) —I have spoken, but I seek leave to speak again in view of the fact—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Barnett)—You do not need leave, Senator Macdonald. You have a right to speak. You are speaking to Senator Conroy’s amendment to your amendment, so you can proceed.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. We will not be supporting the amendment to our amendment. Quite clearly, as I suspected without having seen it, the amendment is nonsensical, talking about ‘the national interest’. I might say I still have not seen a bit of paper with this amendment on it.

Senator Williams —Here it is—a bit of scribble there.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —Oh, we have got it. If you need any example of how this government are simply incapable of running the country, their amendment comes in handwritten form on the back of an envelope. And this lot are supposed to be running the country! No wonder they have run us into over $300 billion worth of debt.

Senator Conroy’s amendment removes ‘regional Australia’ and substitutes ‘the national interest’. The whole purpose of our amendment was to highlight the fact that this government is stealing from rural and regional Australia funds the previous government had allocated there and diverting them to the cities. They are part of Australia, sure, but I think any fair observer would say that those living in the more populous areas of Australia do have better infrastructure, better facilities and better roads. They have a suburban train network, they have taxis down the end of the street and they have bus systems. Those sorts of facilities are not available in rural and regional Australia. I am sure Senator Conroy, with his wide journeys into rural and regional Australia, would understand that the reason you need better roads—or at least decent, usable roads—in rural and regional Australia is that you do not have a commuter train down the end of the street. You do not have a hospital one suburb away.

The AusLink program, which this is a steal of, put money into rural and regional Australia, because roads in many instances are the only means of transport. There are no trams, no buses, no suburban railway stations, very few taxis and no ferries. We in the previous government were keen to make sure rural and regional people got a fair go. This government are not interested in a fair go for rural and regional Australia. They have gone to where there are more votes, which is obviously in the capital cities. So we will certainly not be agreeing to the amendment to our amendment. The bill, as I say, we are allowing through with amendments to highlight these issues, and we are hoping for support from the crossbenches for the amendment that we have moved.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT —The question is that Senator Conroy’s amendment to Senator Macdonald’s second reading amendment be agreed to.

Question negatived.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Senator Conroy, you need two senators to make a call for a division. I only heard one call, from Senator Conroy. That being the case, I called it for the noes. The question now is that the second reading amendment moved by Senator Macdonald be agreed to.

Question agreed to.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT —The question now is that the original question, as amended, be agreed to.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.