Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I, too, would like to name all the members who are not here today from the opposition. Their nonattendance has allowed us to be here to pass necessary legislation to help in relation to the coronavirus. The opposition agreed to pair 47 government members, and, because of that, many of my colleagues were not able to be here today. As a matter of fact, as a consequence, only 21 Labor members are here in the chamber. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who showed their cooperation in allowing us to have our sitting today with the necessary social distancing that applies.

I would like to thank Ms Aly, the member for Cowan; Mr Burns, the member for Macnamara; Ms Butler, the member for Griffith; Mr Byrne, the member for Holt; Mr Champion, the member for Spence; Ms Chester, the member for Bendigo; Ms Coker, the member for Corangamite; Mr Conroy, the member for Shortland; Mr Dick, the member for Oxley; Mr Dreyfus, the member for Isaacs; Ms Elliot, the member for Richmond; Mr Fitzgibbon, the member for Hunter; Mr Georganas, the member for Adelaide; Mr Giles, the member for Scullin; Mr Gorman, the member for Perth; Mr Hill, the member for Bruce; Ms Kearney, the member for Cooper—and I also pause to acknowledge the tragic death in their family and pay my respects to her and her partner, Leigh Hubbard; Mr Kelly, the member for Eden-Monaro; Mr Keogh, the member for Burt; Mr Khalil, the member for Wills; Mr Mitchell, the member for Lyons; Dr Mulino, the member for Fraser; Ms Murphy, the member for Dunkley; Mr Neumann, the member for Blair; Ms O'Neil, the member for Hotham; Ms Owens, the member for Parramatta; Ms Payne, the member for Canberra; Mr Perrett, the member for Moreton; Mrs Phillips, the member for Gilmore; Ms Rishworth, the member for Kingston; Ms Rowland, the member for Greenway; Mr Snowdon, the member for Lingiari; Ms Swanson, the member for Paterson; Ms Templeman, the member for Macquarie; Mr Thistlethwaite, the member for Kingsford Smith; Ms Thwaites, the member for Jagajaga; Ms Vamvakinou, the member for Calwell; Mr Watts, the member for Gellibrand; Ms Wells, the member for Lilley; Mr Wilson, the member for Fremantle; and Mr Zappia, the member for Makin.

I would also like to acknowledge: we did have a reserve list of members to be in the building but not necessarily in the parliament, just in case we needed to have others to attend. So I acknowledge Ms Bird, the member for Cunningham; Dr Freelander, the member for Macarthur; Mr Husic, the member for Chifley; Mr Gosling, the member for Solomon; Ms McBride, the member for Dobell; and Mr Smith, the member for Bean. I generally thank those members for their cooperation in allowing us to sit the way we have to pass the necessary legislation to help and assist in relation to the coronavirus.

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