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

What a sad day it is when the opposition is reduced to this. The opposition, after just two weeks of parliament, has completely run out of puff. I offered the opposition two speakers each on this debate; we would have granted leave. The condition was, of course, that the opposition speak on this just once today, because we have a big agenda for the nation. We have legislation to put through this House so it is in the Senate when we return. A decent Manager of Opposition Business would know that. A decent Manager of Opposition Business would recognise that, whatever the differences between us in this House, issues such as the response to the equine crisis, the emergency response consolidation bill for the Northern Territory and the formation of Infrastructure Australia are worthy of debate, yet we have this bizarre concentration.

Let us have a look at what is actually happening here. We used to sit four days a week; now we will sit for five days a week. We used to have question time four times a week; now we will have question time four times a week. We used to have three matters of public importance debates; now we will have three matters of public importance debates. Question time over the life of the Howard government averaged around 18 or 19 questions every question time. Under the new government, we are averaging more than 20 questions. In the past 10 years, under the government of this now discredited opposition, we only had more than 20 questions once in 10 years. Under the Rudd government, that has happened twice in two weeks. Why is that the case?

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