Senator BRANDIS (Queensland—Attorney-General, Vice-President of the Executive Council and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (09:31): I seek leave to move a motion to vary the hours of meeting and routine of business for this week to provide for the consideration of two bills: the Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2017 and the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Jobs for Families Child Care Package) Bill 2016. Leave not granted. Senator BRANDIS: Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in my name, I move: That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion relating to provide for the consideration of a matter; namely, a motion to provide that a motion relating to the hours of meeting and routine of business may be moved immediately and determined without amendment or debate. Once again we see the Australian Labor Party trying to get in the way of the orderly dispatch by this Senate of its business. What the government seeks to do today is to ensure that the childcare package, which will be of benefit to a million Australian families, is able to be debated and disposed of. The most sensible thing for the Labor Party to do would have been to cooperate with the government, but of course the one thing that we know the Labor Party is determined to do is to obstruct at every turn every attempt that the Turnbull government makes to try and get the budget in order while, at the same time, providing for social benefits in a way that is targeted to the most needy Australian families—which is precisely what the childcare package does. I want to pay tribute to my colleague and friend Senator Simon Birmingham. When he inherited the portfolio which he now has, he inherited the mess, the wreckage that had been left over from the Rudd and Gillard governments' arrangements for child care. After long negotiations with the sector and after the extremely careful development of a package, he has arrived at a package which focuses the government provided benefits in the childcare system upon the families who need it most. But, of course, as those of us on our side of the parliament know, you cannot have these beneficial social programs without them being paid for, so they are going to be paid for, and we have found elsewhere the savings to enable us to pay for them. The bill secures savings of over $2.4 billion over the forward estimates. The childcare package contains three measures: maintaining income-free areas and means-test thresholds for certain payments and allowances at their current levels for three years; automating the income stream review process, which will lead to improvements in the accuracy of income support payments and reductions in consumer debt; and extending and simplifying ordinary waiting periods for the parenting payment and the youth allowance for a person who is not undertaking full-time study and is not a new apprentice. These are all provisions of the Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill. Senator O'Neill: That's what you call the dispatch of orderly business—going after children and young people? Senator BRANDIS: Senator O'Neill, I would have thought that somebody who professes to believe in social justice as you and the Labor Party profess to believe would be supporting a measure that targets the assistance provided by government to those who need it most. That is what this package of legislation does. That is what the childcare package does, so that families who need the support will get the support, and, meanwhile, we have found savings elsewhere in the budget to enable that to be paid for. As a result of what the government is seeking to do, seeking the passage to the chamber today— Senator O'Neill: Young aboriginal children in the bush won't get an education. That's who you are taking the money away from! Senator BRANDIS: Senator O'Neill, please, you keep interjecting. I know I have touched a raw nerve with you, because you claim to believe in social justice—your leader does not, of course—and yet at every turn you try and get in the way of measures to focus the government's welfare measures on those at the bottom end of the income spectrum. That is what Senator Simon Birmingham, the minister, has been able to achieve with this legislation, but of course the Labor Party will vote against it. The Labor Party will vote against this legislation just as the Labor Party will vote against every measure that this government introduces in order to deal with the task of budget repair—a task that we inherited 3½ years ago when we inherited from them the most catastrophic set of financial accounts that any incoming government had inherited in Australian history. For 3½ years you have been standing in the way of budget repair, for 3½ years you have been standing in the way of social justice and you are going to try and do it again today.