Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

He may well be accurate; I haven't gone back to 1901. What I have done is go back to 2007—a period of 16 years or so, the majority of which saw those opposite government and not the Labor Party—and the average sitting weeks for a non-election year, which 2024 will be, was 17 weeks for the House of Representatives and 14 weeks for the Senate. That is exactly what is contained in this sitting schedule. And I'll say further that the final non-COVID non-election sitting year for the former coalition government, 2018, had—wait for it—17 weeks of sittings for the House of Representatives!

We have important legislation to get on with here—the Disability Services and Inclusion Bill 2023. This has been debated in the Senate and adopted without dissent. The opposition and the crossbench have had notice of the government's intention here, so I move:

That the question be now put.

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