Senator IAN MACDONALD (Queensland) (16:05): Mental health is an important area, and some of the issues that Senator McLucas has raised are things that I have been helping constituents with also, but I have not come into the chamber and made a political point about it in the hope that someone from the press gallery might be watching me. I have actually got onto the ministers and their officers and said: 'Look, these are problems. Can we do something about it?' In a case that I am sure Senator McLucas knows about, because it is up in the area that she is supposed to be looking after, I have helped someone who was providing services in the mental health area with a contract termination and where it went from there. Just yesterday the friends of rural and regional health had a meeting here where the issue was raised of contracts for staff in rural and regional Australia terminating on 30 June, but them not knowing at this stage. As a result of that, immediately following the meeting, I took the people involved to one of the minister's advisers, who came around on the spur of the moment and spent some time with them. I could not stay, so I am not quite sure how it evolved. But I did get a message that the issue was being progressed and looked at. So you can do things without coming into the chamber and spending a lot of time hoping that you might get a bit of a news headline out of this sort of issue. That is an important issue, but Senator Nash and Ms Sussan Ley are two of the best health ministers that I have seen in my very long time in this parliament and they far outweigh and they far exceed the relevance, interest and action of the health ministers—I am not sure how many there were—under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments. The motion we are talking to is take note of the minister's answers on why a question asked 35 days ago has not been answered. Under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government it was over four years that I had asked questions of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government and they still were not answered. The Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government went out of power before my questions asked in the early days in 2008 were even answered by ministers in the Labor government. So spare me the hypocrisy about questions not being answered. The Labor Party made an absolute art form of never answering questions in spite of us raising it time and time again. There is also something else that I will raise. These are important debates, but the Senate has a process and from 3 pm to 3.30 pm there is take note of answers and senators adjust their time accordingly. In the time that I have been waiting to speak on take note of answers I have been and chaired a meeting of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. Senator Bilyk could not get there because she was waiting to speak here. Other colleagues have been to and from meetings. The minister was going to deliver perhaps the most important ministerial statement in years at 3.30 today, and we were all preparing ourselves for that and we all wanted to hear about that. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator O'Neill ): There is a point of order. Senator Macdonald, please resume your seat. Senator Polley: I raise a point of order on relevance. For someone who comes in and lectures us about questioning the minister's lack of answers— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: What is your point of order, Senator Polley? Senator POLLEY: I am drawing back to the matter before the chair. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Your point of order is on relevance. There is no point of order. It is a debating point. Senator Macdonald has the call. Senator IAN MACDONALD: I do not care. These are important debates, and it applies to Labor people. We did not have a quorum in the committee that I am supposed to be at because Labor members are not there and I am not there. All I am saying is: have these debates, but the Greens have started this. As I indicated the other day, every time the Greens start this process I am going to participate because it does not matter to me. I can put off my appointments. People are happy to wait to see me. An opposition senator interjecting— Senator IAN MACDONALD: But someone has to somewhere along the line got to bring some discipline back. Senator McLucas spent 20 minutes and some of what she said was very important but she kept repeating herself. Whether this is a strategy of the Labor Party for some reason, which I am not aware of. I am not sure what the strategy would be. Senator McLucas kept repeating herself, repeating herself, repeating herself. An opposition senator interjecting— Senator IAN MACDONALD: There was not anything new in the presentation. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order, senators. Senator IAN MACDONALD: It just leads me to think that for some reason Labor Party senators have absolutely nothing to do. Although I wish they would attend some committee meetings, many of which they set-up and then do not bother to attend. I say this the whole chamber—people organise their time from 3 pm to 3.30 pm to take note of answers, so you set these committee meetings up at 3.35 so that can happen. If this is going to become the norm from the Labor Party and the Greens, well just tell us so that we can make sure that these committee meetings are not set-up. We can tell the minister, with the most important ministerial statement in a long, long time, that we are all waiting for 3.30 and do not bother coming until six o'clock. Perhaps this is the strategy of the Labor Party. Here is a good news story on defence. The Labor Party are embarrassed because that is something they never did. They never had a defence white paper that was funded. They never had a white paper on defence that talked about any shipbuilding. Perhaps it is their strategy today to waste time so that this good news story of the minister's ministerial address does not get some airplay. I do not know what the strategy is, but it is a pretty poor one in any case. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: There is a point of order. Please resume your seat, Senator Macdonald. Senator Moore: I rise on a point of order on relevance. It is my understanding that we were taking note on the lack of answer we have had from the minister about the mental health processes. I am not sure whether other people feel as though Senator Macdonald is being relevant to that particular issue or not. I do not believe so and I take a point of order. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: It is a timely reminder of relevance, and I draw the senator's attention to the matter before the chair and that is that the motion moved by Senator Gallagher be agreed to. Senator IAN MACDONALD: Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. The motion is that we take note of the answer of the minister. The contributions that I have heard have nothing to do with the fact that the minister has not answered a question. How long is it since the question was put on notice? Was it 33 days or something? Senator Moore: It was January. Senator IAN MACDONALD: January, okay, less than two months. As I say, I waited four years from Labor ministers and I never even got an answer then. The government was defeated before we even got an answer. But anyhow, two months, 60 days, and I suspect it is not 60 days. The minister, as a recall her answer, said that she did not have the reasons. I think she is the representative minister in this area and she said she would find out and get back to the chamber. Since then we have had an hour and a half debate on the minister's answer. I can tell you I have sat here for some of it. As I said, I have been and chaired a committee and I have done a couple of things in the meantime. Most of what I have heard had nothing to do with the minister's response to why the question was not answered. If the Labor Party are going to do this then that is fair enough. I do not care; I really do not care. Important debates need to be set down. You have got opportunities to set down important debates, but please think of your colleagues. Do not think of me; I would not expect you to. But think of some of your own colleagues. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Macdonald, I would just remind you to make your remarks to the chair. Senator IAN MACDONALD: I just urge Labor Party senators to think of their own colleagues and colleagues across the chamber who organise their times and their meetings with a purpose. This sort of new arrangement is, as I say, something the Greens have started on. If there is a Labor Party and Greens combined strategy following their six years in coalition government together, that is fine—but just let the rest of us know so that we can tell the minister who is busy and tell senators who are doing serious committee work when they should have their meetings. That is all I am saying. I will conclude now after nine minutes and not the 20 minutes that Labor senators used to filibuster, repeating endlessly things they have said twice or thrice before. It was pure filibustering and not a contribution to the debate in the chamber. I want to conclude in record-quick time in this debate by saying that, while I cannot speak for them, I know that Minister Nash and Minister Ley are two of the most assiduous ministers in the government. They will be doing everything possible to deal with questions placed on notice or taken here at the earliest possible time. They both deserve a lot of credit and a lot of praise. I will certainly give that to them because they are two of the best ministers in the health area that I have seen in my long time in this parliament. Question agreed to.