Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This amendment is similar to the one that we moved last year about the 2015 sitting calendar. These sittings coincide with school holidays on three occasions—in particular, in July for Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory. For Queensland and Victoria, they then coincide with the school holidays in September as well. So senators who have young families, with children at school, twice will lose out on being able to spend time with their children during the school holidays. It is quite easy for us to have a calendar that does exclude sitting days on school holidays. We are supposed to be family friendly. It is very hard for us to be family friendly in this Senate. One of the ways we can be is by not calling sitting days on school holidays. (Time expired)