Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will be supporting the government in this motion to vary the hours of sitting tomorrow. We will not be supporting Senator Brown’s amendment. If any party in this chamber values question time, it is the opposition. We are the ones who are forgoing the opportunity to have a full question time. That time is valuable for us, and the Greens get a limited chance to question the government during that time. Senator Brown makes the remark that it is not a significant matter. It is a significant matter. We understand that the program for tomorrow is disrupted by a significant visit by a head of state, and we are prepared to put aside four hours to go over to the House of Representatives for that.

Despite Senator Brown’s semantics as to whether we are invited or what the technical nature of that invitation is, we are nevertheless giving the courtesy to this chamber of allowing it to suspend for four hours to listen to a head of state of a neighbouring country which is of great significance to this country. So we will be supporting the motion. We understand the opportunity will be lost to have a question time, but it would be impractical to insert question time at a later hour of the day and then push other matters out of the program. So it is quite feasible, on this special occasion, to give up one question time for the year.