Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, it is a clayton’s sitting week. On that fifth day there will be no question time but we will have a sitting day. What that means is this. The taxes of the average Australian, who at the moment is struggling with increasing home mortgage interest rates, increased interest rates on their credit cards and on their car loans and is having to pay more to put petrol in their tank—even though they had been led to believe it would be cheaper with a change of government and their families are struggling with groceries—already contribute $1 million a day on average to the running of this parliament. This parliament is going to take $1 million of their money—it is not our money; it is their money—so we can come here to sit on a Friday. We on this side are very comfortable, very happy and very prepared to do that even though we believe our constituents will be disadvantaged by us not being in our electorates. We are prepared to do that but we expect, on behalf of the Australian people, that when we get here the Prime Minister is going to be sitting there, there is going to be a line of ministers along there and they are going to answer questions from here. That is our concern. The accountability of the executive to the legislature is here. It is all of us coming here from our electorates with the questions that our constituents—that is, fair dinkum everyday Australians—want asked on their behalf about the things they are really worried about—of the Prime Minister, whom I note is not here, of the Deputy Prime Minister, whom I note is not here, and of most of the ministers of the government, who are not here. We want them to be here to answer questions not only from us but, through us, from the people, the fair dinkum workers who are listening to Neil Mitchell on 3AW or from anyone else throughout Australia. They must answer questions about things about which they and their families are very concerned.

We were then told this, on 8 February this year. We had the release of an updated order of business with three minor changes. At this stage the average person out there is probably thinking, ‘What does this mean?’ We were told we would move one hour of government business from Tuesday to Monday, there would be documents and ministerial statements added to Monday but not a session for a matter of public importance. For those Australians who are listening to this, a matter of public importance is a matter whereby the parliament makes a decision on any one sitting day that something is so important that a debate should be brought on, usually by the opposition but sometimes by the government. For those listening, it follows question time. It provides the opportunity whereby, if the issue of the day is that grocery prices are causing families to actually have to go without food in the climate that they are in, we will have a debate about it. We expect the minister on the other side or the Prime Minister to actually engage in a debate with us about that issue of the day, that matter of public importance—important not only to us but, by definition, to the public, the people we represent. That is what we are upset about. We are upset about the fact that if we are here on a Friday a million dollars is ripped out of the pockets of the average working family by the government led by the Prime Minister. So we expect to be here to work. We expect the government to work. We expect it to be accountable, to answer questions on behalf of the Australian people.

This is very interesting. Today I listened very carefully to the Governor-General’s speech, which is, as we know, the speech of the government and its agenda for the forthcoming three years of this parliament. From page 18, under ‘Governance and transparency’, I quote:

The Government will implement new measures to help make government more accessible to the community and more transparent in its decision-making.

The Government will hold regular Community Cabinet meetings in capital cities, regional towns and remote communities across Australia.

Accountability actually means that you turn up. If the government believes the parliament should sit five days a week, we will support that as there are many things Australians are concerned about. They are very frightened, for example, about the lack of an economic plan from the Treasurer, who appears to be in a back room reading books about how to run an economy. That is one of the things they are frightened about. In fact, we want him and the Prime Minister and ministers to be here on Friday, to answer questions about those issues that worry average Australians.

The next issue about which I know other speakers on our side will speak is the legality of this. Okay, there is the morality of it, the morality of ripping a million dollars out of the pockets of Australians to fund the working of a parliament in which a Prime Minister does not turn up to answer any questions. There is that aspect to it, but we would like to see this legal advice. We also have legal advice and we are very concerned that this is in breach of section 39 of the Constitution in relation to quorums. The government owe it to the Australian people to show them the legal advice that they paid for which demonstrates and proves that this is constitutionally lawful. I also note that the leader of government business—

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