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

It is extraordinary that those opposite would suggest that a debate about suspending standing orders between 9 am and 2 pm next Tuesday is not related to clean energy bills and to taking action against climate change. What I am indicating clearly to the opposition, as I always have done in a transparent way, is what we will do with the additional hours. I am doing that in a way which puts it on the record so that there can be no doubt that government business—we are going to move some other resolution or list some other bills or do some other change—is about facilitating the debate about climate change. I understand their concern about debating a clean energy future because they are embarrassed by their own position. I understand them wanting to stop the member for Wentworth making a contribution to this debate because they put him on the list and then he took himself off and now he is off completely. We are going to make sure that if he wishes to make a contribution to the debate, then we will certainly facilitate that.

This is a common sense resolution. I indicate to the House that I foreshadow that, if need be, we are prepared to sit even more hours to make sure that people can make a contribution to this discussion, which stands in stark contrast to what the House has done in the past over Work Choices, over the Tampa legislation, over going to war in Iraq and over a range of other issues where people were stopped from making a contribution. I commend the resolution to the House.

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