Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

And then there is the new paradigm, as my colleague indicates, which suggested that this would be a parliament where there was more respect for the opposition and the crossbench from a government without majority, without legitimacy. Unfortunately, because of the short number of sitting weeks, the 17 sitting weeks that the Leader of the House has committed us to again next year, I assume that the government will continue to try and push legislation through that is rushed. We saw it with the carbon tax legislation. All of it had to be put back into the parliament. Many, many amendments had to be moved and dealt with because of the massive number of mistakes the government made because of its general incompetence.

So I make the point that the parliament is not sitting enough next year. The public expect us to sit a lot more than 17 weeks. We did not sit enough this year because of the short time frames for the government's agenda.

Therefore they have broken the conventions of the past, where we have proper notice given to us for examining and deliberating on legislation and amendments to legislation, and for that reason the parliament's work has not been nearly as good in the last two years of this parliament as it was in previous parliaments. But, as I have said, we will probably never sit next year because the government will call an election over the summer break and try to capitalise on the summer break. If they call an election tomorrow—

Mr Albanese interjecting—

The Leader of the House has said they are going to call an election tomorrow! I had better get my corflutes out. I have my A-frames ready.

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