Thread by @Voice4Victoria

Pandemic Bill update 🧵

Been waiting to see if there's a standard evening Herald Sun leak from the govt about news of a deal.
With nothing so far & also no leaks from any MPs saying they've been sent new amendments (would have to happen) it's looking like debate won't resume tomorrow it'll be Thursday.

It is however technically still scheduled for tomorrow but this is never set in stone & can easily just change in the morning. This is where Bernie's comments come from (I assume) as the govt doubled down on this schedule at a briefing this evening which was a bit odd.

The lack of amendments being sent, so far anyway, is the much bigger indicator. They can't resume debate unless the house knows WTF they're debating & standard practice is they get sent the docs & offered a briefing before the sitting happens.

One main thing that pissed the crossbench off first round was being sent amendments at 10pm Monday night, for debate on the Tuesday, with a panic briefing offered for half an hour the day the debate was meant to start. Don't see Barton or Hayes allowing this repeat to colleagues.

In terms of someone 'doing a deal'. Barton & Hayes are negotiating that's usually how that works to a point. Hayes has made it clear that he's happy with it or votes no. Barton has been reassuringly dismissive of the govts timeline concerns saying they made this issue themselves.

Having followed along snippets, talking to people & looking at the very tight timeline they're on it seems they're likely negotiating in the same room, or very close to it. This would be good. Means deals are harder & crossbench concerns are validated in anothers company.

Current best guess is that it kicks off again on Thursday while the scramble for an agreement & they extend sitting to Friday again, then just push through Friday night until it passes. If there's no leak by 11.30pm we'll know in the morning what things are looking like.

Worth noting the next stage isn't going to be quick/easy. Committee is where they run thru the whole bill line by line, ask any questions anyone has (with no limit) & go through every single amendment to vote on it - 2 weeks ago it was looking like there was roughly 90. Yes, 90.

As a result, there's pretty much no way this is getting done in a single sitting day. Even if they started tomorrow, it would almost certainly go over into Thursday. So it's still going to be a long & chaotic week of Parliament ahead.