Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. This is about whether the opposition is prepared to support the government in having a five-day working week for parliamentarians. That is what this motion is about. The fact is that the Leader of the National Party told a gathering of his colleagues last week to ‘consider the next three years as a holiday before we return to our rightful place on the government benches’. That is the other thing that is going on here. Look at the propositions which have been put forward. The opposition does not comprehend that it actually lost the election, that this side of the House has a mandate and that part of our mandate is increasing our accountability to the parliament. The list of speakers that is circulating still has all its members on the government side. No; you are now on the right side of the House. I got a letter today about a constituent from someone signed ‘Minister’ from that side of the House—the Minister for Small Business and Tourism. It has not yet come to terms with the fact that it has changed.

On this side of the House, we are determined to increase accountability. For example, when it came to AWAs, the person who was minister for Work Choices refused to table the details of AWAs. The fact is that the distinction is pretty clear here. This parliament will sit for 82 days. Previously, the Howard government sat for 67 days. We will have 67 question times. The Howard government had on average 63 question times, including 50 in 2007. Of MPIs cancelled by the previous government, there were eight in the last parliament and 56 over its 12-year life.

The fact is that these provisions will allow for greater sitting of the parliament. We have moved private members’ business to Friday, raising the status of private members’ business, allowing for more than an hour of extra time during that period, and we have added three hours 25 minutes of government business. Unlike this mob opposite, we have a huge agenda for the nation. We have a mandate to implement that agenda and we will be pursuing it throughout 2008. This is a sensible proposition which should be supported by the opposition. If you want to keep sitting all night, you can. It just shows what your priorities are. It just shows that you do not have anything positive to say about the future of the nation. I commend the changed standing orders to the House.

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