This evening, we are back on Committee Stage of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill. I wish to make an appeal to colleagues across the Chamber at this point, because something fundamentally wrong is happening. A Bill that is fundamentally flawed is going to be passed on Committee and Report Stages over the next week and then passed into law. As we all know, this is a Bill that excludes up to 30,000 victims and survivors of mother and baby homes. Some 21,000 people are being excluded on a completely arbitrary basis. If they were in an institution for less than six months they will get zero, but if they were there for more than six months they will get some compensation. As everyone knows, the Minister has never explained that rationale because clearly there is no rationale anyone could ever justify.

I remind the Senator that the Bill will be debated later on and tomorrow, according to the schedule of the House.

I accept that. The reason I am making this point today is because I want to appeal to colleagues from the Government benches, in particular, to stop and have a conversation in their parliamentary parties to ensure that the Bill in its current form does not pass and those crucial reforms to include survivors are made.

I cannot understand why there is silence from the Government side of the Chamber on this Bill. Everybody knows it is fundamentally flawed and we will let everyone down if the Bill passes in its current form. There is no reason why, collectively, the Chamber cannot do better. The silence last week from the Government side was outrageous, frankly. This is a crucial Bill for survivors who have been let down many times by the State. The Government is about to let them down again. Surely we can collectively do better. I ask for the Leader to respond. Surely we can agree to pause the Bill before it goes to Report Stage and see if, collectively, we can do far better than the Government is doing right now.