Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Hansard source

We saw the headline before Christmas, that for the first time since Federation the parliament will sit for five days a week. It was a cheap headline but it totally defamed the work ethic of members of parliament. What we are seeing today is an outrage being practised on the parliament to protect the smart alec idea of Hawker Britton which was foolishly adopted by the Prime Minister on training wheels and the Leader of the House with L-plates. I utterly reject any suggestion that members of parliament only work when they are in this chamber. We work seven days a week, regardless of whether we are in this chamber or not. But, as is becoming typical from this government, this stunt to justify a headline turns out to be a scam anyway because, while the parliament might be sitting for five days a week, ministers will not be here. The idea that we can have a functioning parliament without ministers is simply shameful.

There are two fundamental errors with what the government is doing. The first is that there was not the slightest semblance of due process. This is a very serious change to the procedures of this House. This is a radical usurpation of the ordinary sitting patterns that this House has followed for a long, long time. This should have been done, if it were to be done, either by recommendation of the Procedure Committee or through negotiation with the opposition. All previous changes to the sitting times of this House that I can recall either were recommendations of the Procedure Committee, which the then government accepted, or were carefully negotiated through with the then opposition. Absolutely nothing of that kind has happened here. So not only have we seen no due process but, as a result of this bodgie process, we have changes to the standing orders put to this parliament which are wrong in substance.

Ministers are paid more because they are supposed to work more. In the thinking of members opposite, ministers are going to get paid more for working less. It is a ridiculous situation which this government is putting before the House. Should this motion be carried, we will see degraded accountability, we will see days of parliamentary sitting without the traditional question time accountability of the executive to the parliament but, worse, we will see degraded private members’ business.

I see a whole swag of new private members sitting in front of me. They have come here full of hope, full of expectation and, above all, desperately anxious to impress their senior colleagues, which is why new members opposite, of all people, should not be supporting the motion that the government has put before the House—because, if you vote for this, no minister will ever see you speak. I am saying to you: do not waste your pearly words on mere backbenchers; make sure ministers are there to listen. The only way ministers will be there to listen is if you support the amendments that the opposition has put forward.

This motion that has been put before the House is a very, very bad start by the Rudd government. This was a party which, prior to the election, talked about raising parliamentary standards. It was a party which actually promised to submit to the Australian people at the election a plan for raising parliamentary standards. Perhaps that is one of the plans that are going to be put before the weekend conference of 1,000 people, so that the government might actually be able to come up with something. This is a very bad start from the Rudd government, a government which runs away from question time, a government which is scared of accountability to the parliament. Every day this parliament sits, every question time this Prime Minister faces, he is going to be reminded of this gross act of political cowardice.

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