Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I do not want to take up a long period of the Senate’s time but I do think this does need some explanation. The government proposes an extension of hours on Tuesday night till 10 pm, with a dinner break, plus an extension of hours on Thursday night. This seems to suggest that Thursday night will be open-ended until we finish the legislative program as outlined, which consists of a considerable number of bills. It is assumed—and the government may want to expand on this—that at a particular late point on Thursday night we may adjourn and resume on Friday. We need a clear indication from the government about Friday. People do have matters for which they need to arrange travel and appointments that they need to keep or abandon, as the case may be. If, so early in the legislative program, we are sitting extended hours to deal with the legislation, the question that has to be asked, and answered by the government, is whether, and why, all of these legislative items are of an urgent nature and are required to be completed in this week or whether they can reasonably be held over till the next sitting fortnight—that is, unless the government says that this is the last week we are going to sit and that it is an end of session period. Up till now, the government, it seems, has been treating each week as a last week of sitting.