Motion: Government Business Program

MOTION:

‘GOVERNMENT BUSINESS PROGRAM’.

Tuesday, 5 May 2026.

Ask and you shall receive, Leader of the House.

We will not be opposing the Government Business Program, which has been proposed with simply one Bill today.

I welcome of course the new Leader of the House. Because it was his first go, I did not want to pick him up on the second-reading speech that he gave in the Government Business Program debate. I am sure that in future debates on the Government Business Program he will more understand the nature of the motion as being a procedural motion.

I know other Members across on the other side of the Chamber were agreeing with me. I do welcome the Leader of the House. I acknowledge the former Leader of the House and wish her very well in her retirement. But we have a new Leader of the House in the Chamber, and I am sure it will be more difficult for the Speaker to manage the both of us. I think it would be fair to say we both have a different style, and I suspect the two of us will in the best, most collaborative way butt heads in the Chamber, which is a good thing. I think that both of us will have a voice rather than simply one side having a voice over recent years.

This Government Business Program, as I say, deals with a roads Bill that is primarily around road safety. Without wanting to foreshadow the Leader of the National Party’s contribution on the Bill, anything that we can do to improve road safety is a good thing, so this Bill is an opportunity to deal with the measures that do just that. But as I say, I do not want to go into any great substance on the Bill.

I do want to also note that on Budget Day we on this side of the Chamber hope every year – the Leader of the House just moved a motion to allow a cognate debate on the Budget Bills – that everybody on this side and, frankly, every member of this Chamber will be provided an opportunity to consider the Budget Bills and to speak on the Budget Bills.

What I suspect will soon happen is next sitting week the Budget Bills themselves will move to the other place but we will have a take-note motion in this Chamber, which hopefully should in theory allow every Member to speak on it.

Sadly – and the Leader of the House may not be aware of this, so I am glad that he is here so I can let him know – last year there were roughly 20 Members of the Government who were not provided an opportunity to speak on their own Budget. I know that is a clear reflection of what the Government thinks of their own Budget – it is a stinker, is what it means. That also means that not all Members of the Chamber are provided an opportunity to speak on the Budget, and no matter how bad a Budget is – and this is a $200 billion bad one – the Government should not be afraid of allowing Members of the Chamber to speak on it. You would think that all Members would have an opportunity to speak on it.

So, I say to the Leader of the House here: I hope we do not have a repeat of last year. I would hope that all Members have an opportunity to speak on it so that in our communities we can speak of the neglect and financial mismanagement and the Government Members have an opportunity to read their talking points. That is okay; we know their talking points. But last year that unfortunately was not the case. So being Budget day I had hoped the Leader of the House would give me that wish – that we will all have that opportunity soon.

I would also say, with the Treasurer’s speech being so short, that that probably has provided the House with a little bit more time overall. I was looking at my clock and thinking, ‘Well, we’re about half the way through half an hour,’ and then it just ended. So, we have all been given the gift of extra time that we did not think we were going to have, with that short speech. I do hope that all Members have that opportunity. But as I return back to this, we will not be opposing this Government Business Program, which deals with only one Bill, which we will consider this evening, at the end of the day.