'What is wrong with you?' Senate outrage over lack of staff while Labor rams through legislation

Senators are bristling at the Federal Government’s frantic legislation push in the last sitting fortnight, demanding more help in the end-of-year rush.

Crossbench senators successfully suspended standing orders to get a motion passed calling on the government to better resource the Procedure Office.

The Procedure Office helps parliamentarians with drafting legislation, including amendments.

But with Labor trying to get numerous bills debated and passed before rising for the year – and potentially before the next federal election is called – the crossbenches are lashing out, saying they can’t do their jobs properly.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie raised an urgent motion and was backed by fellow independents David Pocock, Lidia Thorpe, Fatima Payman and Greens senator Larissa Waters.

Senator Lambie described it as “absolutely disgraceful” for controversial legislation to be rushed through the Senate without proper resourcing for crossbenchers to respond.

“We can’t get our stuff drafted, and you’re trying to throw through 20 bills in a fortnight? What is wrong with you?” she said to government senators in the chamber.

“The lack of resourcing is an absolute choke on democracy.

“The legislation that the government is trying to jam through is massive and has serious consequences.”

Senator Pocock said it was “not good enough” when elected representatives are unable to get private senator bills drafted.

“When you cannot get amendments that are based on what you’re hearing from experts – when they have concerns about a government bill when you’re hearing from people that you represent and you want to move amendments that reflect that, and you’ve got a government that seems intent to drop hundreds of pages of legislation, forgo all parliamentary scrutiny and ram it through, and you cannot move amendments – this is not good for our democracy,” he said.

Senator Waters said the government was threatened by the Greens and independents and was trying to reduce their powers by diminishing their resources.

“When the drafters say to us, ‘Look, we’re really sorry, but we’re slammed. There’s not enough of us to do the work that you need us to do because the government haven’t given us the staff to do that work’, it’s not their fault,” Senator Waters said.

“It’s the fault of the government not hiring enough people to do the work to help the Greens and the crossbench fix the government’s weak legislation.”

But Labor hit back, with Emergency Management Minister Jenny McAllister reprimanding the senators for bringing their gripe to the chamber and disrupting the business of the day.

“The appropriate place to raise this is either through discussions, informally, or through referral to the appropriations committee, which is the entity that oversees the budget for the Senate,” Senator McAllister said.

“And it is disappointing that the matter is instead being raised in this way, without notice, without discussion, and suggests that the people who are seeking to resolve it are not, in fact, seeking to truly resolve it, but actually to escalate a conflict, where a better and effective way of doing it would be through conversation.”

The motion passed with the help of the Coalition, but it is not binding on the government to act.

Senator Lambie issued a warning, however, just in case the government decides to ignore the motion and leave the Procedure Office under-resourced.

“For the last two years, we’ve been telling you this is a problem,” Senator Lambie said.

“So to come in here and act like everything’s all kosher and it’s fine and that we haven’t been doing anything for two years … Now, I intend to come back in here tomorrow and do this again tomorrow morning, unless something is done today.”