Senator HANSON-YOUNG (South Australia) (1.19 pm) - I rise to speak on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget Measures) Bill 2010 put forward, sadly, by the government on budget night. It is going to have a significant impact on families who access child care right around the country - and the pain will grow not just for the coming financial year but across the forward estimates.

It was interesting to sit here listening to the opposition's spokesman because I agree with a number of his points. This is not a good piece of legislation; we should not be looking for budget savings in the really important essential service area of child care. We need to see more funding directed into the area and a better way of ensuring that the government can get their quality outcomes addressed through how they actually pay for child care.

Of course, the Greens have put on the record numerous times that the childcare rebate is not the best way of delivering good quality, affordable or accessible child care. But that is what we have got and that is what parents rely on week in week out to go some way towards meeting the very expensive cost of good quality child care.

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (7.07 pm)-The reason Senator McLucas did not get to complete her speech is that this debate has been crammed into 25 minutes on a Tuesday night. I would like to make some remarks before I comment on the substance of the Wild Rivers (Environmental Management) Bill 2010 [No. 2]. We are debating tonight the process that has brought us here. This is the first time in my experience, having been here for two years as a full member of the Senate Legal and Constitution Affairs Legislation Committee, which Senator Crossin chairs, that I have ever seen a proposed motion come through this parliament to cut short the reporting period of a committee. That is what happened. Senator Crossin, in her brief time, did not make mention of that. Then we saw the procedural chicanery that occurred this afternoon, and which has been going on for the last 48 hours, to find some time to have this debate. The Greens have been proposing, and the coalition opposed our proposition, additional sitting hours so that we could debate the bill-and we will get to the merits of it in a moment-without the farce of everybody watching the clock for periods of four, five or six minutes.

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (9.57 am)-This is the final report of the National Broadband Network select committee, which was set up shortly before I arrived here. In the months between the coalition losing the 2007 election and losing absolute control of the numbers in the Senate, they established a number of select committees in order to prosecute a number of issues including this one, the National Broadband Network.

Senator HANSON-YOUNG (South Australia) (6.21 pm) - I rise to add my contribution to the debate the government's Paid Parental Leave Bill 2010 and Paid Parental Leave (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010.

This is a historic day in this chamber: all three of the major players in this place are committed to some form of paid parental leave and are also committed to seeing that some scheme is up and running by the end of this year.

I say this, however, with some disappointment that the legislation as it is before us does not provide enough support for parents and is not the best possible scheme that, if we had been able to work together, we would have been able to put in place from the word go.