Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Regarding the management of the House, it will not surprise colleagues to hear that the Senate is not being as helpful as the House of Representatives would like it to be and the likelihood is that it will sit well into the night and into the early hours of the morning—although sometimes the senators do not find their speeches as exciting at 1 am as they thought they were going to when they wrote them at 9 am, so we will see if they start to change their minds about that. I am in constant communication with the managers of government business in the Senate, and their view—

Mr Albanese interjecting—

They like me very much, actually—not as much as you like me, it is true!

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House does not have to respond to interjections, no matter how provocative they are.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The likelihood is that they will sit into the early hours of the morning. My instinct is that we should continue to sit here in the House of Representatives and review the situation in the early evening, and I have discussed this with the Manager of Opposition Business. We will probably then suspend the sittings until the ringing of the bells, which means we could either come back tonight, if the Senate does deal with the matter expeditiously, which is unlikely, or come back first thing tomorrow morning and deal with it briefly in the House of Representatives. There are different views on both sides about that matter. Most people would like to get out of the House and be on the early morning planes tomorrow, but that might just not be possible. I intend to keep the Manager of Opposition Business informed of the movements today, but most likely is that we will suspend in the early evening and then come back when the bells ring first thing tomorrow morning.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the House for the update.