Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

In a decade’s time, if we go the way we have gone in the last decade, we will be sitting for something like 30 days a year. Ten years ago it was 79 days, and it is proposed that we sit for 50 days next year. What a joke! The government should be able to organise the sitting weeks such that we are not left rushing things through in an ad hoc way because of deadlines and trying to get extra sitting days at the last minute. It is a shambles! Clearly the government does not have a good handle on managing business in this chamber. There has been a 37 per cent drop in the number of sitting days since 10 years ago. At the same time, there has been a 40 per cent increase in the pay of MPs. Of course, we cannot spend all our time here—we have work to do in our electorates—but, when you get down to 50 days, the balance is out of kilter.

The government say they are quite happy about openness, transparency and scrutiny—but they want to have a lack of scrutiny of their legislation in the parliament. They cannot justify a proposal to sit for 50 days next year. No way! But they think they can just come in here and slip it through. I am hoping the opposition will show a bit of backbone and, rather than just talking about the government not being able to manage their business, say that we need to have extra sitting days scheduled for next year. The opposition cannot justify 50 days and then stand up here tomorrow and say: ‘The government cannot run their business; they cannot manage the process. They cannot come in here and try to squeeze it through in the few days we have got left.’ You cannot say that today, tomorrow, next week or in the next sitting period. You have to stand up here today and say, ‘The government have lost the plot in trying to manage their business in this chamber,’ and you have to vote for extra sitting days next year. Extra sitting days next year is not too much to ask for. This is a new government and the legislation they are putting forward needs proper scrutiny in this chamber. The opposition cannot come in here and argue that we should not sit more hours because the government cannot order their business. They have to be very careful about the decision they make on this.

Extra sitting weeks for next year need to be agreed to. It is extremely important. Scrutiny of legislation is important. Debate is important. Unfortunately this government want to rush things through and not have proper debate in this chamber. In 1999 there were 79 sitting days. In 2000 there were 71 sitting days. Under the Rudd government we have 52 days, 52 days and 50 days. In 2008 we had 52 days. In 2009 we had 52 sitting days. In 2010 we will have 50 sitting days. It is going in the wrong direction; it needs to go up. So Family First will be supporting the extra sitting weeks for next year.

It needs to be planned; it needs to be orderly. Coming in here at the last minute to try to get extra days and hours here is not right. Again, the pressure is going to be on the opposition here to argue the case for not having extra sitting weeks next year. We needed more sitting weeks this year, but it needed to be planned; there should not have been an attempt to do it at the last minute, as if a gun were being held against our head. This needs to be put through and the government needs to come in here and explain why there are only 50 days. Why is it not back up around 70 days? It needs to be back up around that level. You cannot justify it not being at that level.