Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

As is normally the case under page 592 of Practice:

The terms of a matter of public importance … are made known to the Leader of the House or the Manager of Opposition Business, as the case may be, some time after 12 noon …

When we received it today, it's in the normal form described under Practice, where Practice, on the same page, goes through that you have to say 'in accordance with standing order 46' and you have to propose exactly when you want it to take place. The member for Fairfax has proposed that today's matter of public importance should take place on Thursday 9 March. The Practice presumes that you can request it, as it says, today, tomorrow or on a subsequent day. This is the first time anyone has requested that it be two weeks ago. Previously, in similar circumstances, when we were in opposition, we'd been advised that the MPI would be ruled out, and I simply wish to draw this to your attention.

See this speech in context