Senator SIEWERT (Western Australia—Australian Greens Whip) (16:11): The Greens will be supporting the amendment to the motion proposing that the Senate sit on the Monday before budget day. I think that this will be the first time since I have been in this chamber that we have sat on the Monday before the budget. There is a reason for that: there is a lot of preparation and work done in the lead-up to the budget and a lot of talk about it before the budget. So it will be the first time that we have sat on the Monday. When we sit on Fridays in this place, it is usually considered a rollover of the Thursday. Despite the fact that the Greens have argued for question time and other business to be transacted on a Friday, when we sit on Fridays in this place we have always been told, 'No, this is just a rollover of Thursday.' We have failed to get question time and some of the other business that we consider important on the Friday. However, this Monday is the beginning of a sitting week. It should be treated as a normal sitting day that allows us to do the normal business of this place. That includes consideration of documents and clerks documents; authorisations for committees to sit; question time, which is about the only thing that the original motion of the government allows us to do; petitions; taking note of answers; postponements; rearrangements; formal motions; and any matters of public urgency. If we are successful in amending the motion to vary hours, the amended motion will provide the government with plenty of time to deal with the bills that it specifically wants to deal with. Of course, we know that the bills that are listed in the government's motion are the Construction Industry Amendment (Protecting Witnesses) Bill 2015, which is about the ABCC; the Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims Amendment Bill 2015; and the Tribunals Amalgamation Bill 2014. The government has plenty of time to debate these bills. We have already extended hours. I acknowledge that Mr Fraser's death and the adjourning of this place as a matter of respect of course needed to be taken into consideration. We sat late last night; we are sitting late tonight, which we very rarely do on a Wednesday night; and we will be sitting late into the night, potentially, tomorrow until adjournment to consider the bills that the government has asked the Senate to consider. There is extra time to make up there. If the government's motion on sitting hours is amended, there will be plenty of time for the government to consider its business. Of course, if the government was not so intent on ramming through the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2015 this week, it would have had more opportunity to deal with the other bills that it claims are urgent. An honourable senator interjecting— Senator SIEWERT: Yes, we met with the government as part of the leaders and whips process. We indicated our position there. As Senator Moore just articulated, the government said they wanted to sit on Monday. Of course, we would expect that to be a normal Monday. There was no further communication beyond that until we saw the motion, which shows quite clearly that they just want to use the time to ram through these additional bills, without proper consideration of what the Senate does. The Senate has other important work to do. The government seeks through this motion to not allow the Senate to carry out its functions. We do not support the government's coming in here and making us deal with their agenda without full transparency and the ability for us to prosecute the other things that need to be dealt with in this chamber. It is unreasonable for the government to try to not allow us to have full consideration of, for example, take note of petitions and of the clerks documents and transact the normal business of this place. It should be treated as a normal Monday if we are required to sit. The government has had ample time through the extended hours we have already sat this week.