BUSINESS: Days And Hours Of Meeting

I am very pleased to second the amendment. Let me start by saying that it is frankly quite disappointing that the Deputy Leader of the House gave no notice of this being brought on at this time. I think it is regrettable and raises a justified suspicion that what the government is trying to do is to sneak through something they know is pretty shameful. This timetable is pretty shameful. This timetable is a disgrace, and you know it's a disgrace. The fact is that to propose a timetable of only 17 weeks shows a contempt for the Australian people and a contempt for the role of this parliament in holding to account executive government. This is a pattern we have seen repeated time after time by the Albanese Labor government. In mid-2022, shortly after coming to government, the Prime Minister proposed a sitting timetable for 2022 which saw the parliament sit for only 40 days—40 days was the sitting timetable that was moved and adopted by the parliament on the instigation of this weak, incompetent Prime Minister who's determined to avoid and minimise parliamentary scrutiny. It was 40 days in 2022, compared to 67 days in 2021 and 58 days in 2020.

But, of course, he didn't stop there. He wasted no time in cancelling a week of sittings just a couple of months later, in response to the sad death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. And next week is supposed to be a parliamentary sitting week. It was in the parliamentary timetable that was adopted by this parliament at the end of last year on the motion of the Leader of the House. But, just a few weeks ago, this Prime Minister peremptorily cancelled sitting for next week, again citing overseas obligations as his excuse for doing so. We know that the real reason was that the last time he wasn't here and the member for Corio was in the chair—the Deputy Prime Minister put on his big boy pants and was in the chair—it didn't go very well. It didn't go very well at all. It was all very embarrassing and very messy, and it was yet another reminder to this Prime Minister that he's not very keen on parliamentary accountability and scrutiny. He doesn't actually like making himself accountable to this parliament. He doesn't actually like being on the receiving end of questions. He doesn't actually like having to explain to the elected representatives of the people of Australia what his government is doing, and that is why we are seeing a clear pattern from this Prime Minister of trying to reduce, at every opportunity, the number of days that this parliament sits.

He produced a timetable for 2022 which was ridiculously light on—only 40 sitting days. He then seized an opportunity to cut a week of sitting time just a couple of months later. Just a month or so ago he seized another opportunity to cut a week of sitting time. The parliament is supposed to be sitting from next Monday to next Thursday, according to the sitting timetable that this House adopted last year for 2023. But then, of course, he trashed that. He

said: 'I don't want the parliament to be sitting next week. I'm travelling; I'll use that as an excuse!' Let's have a look at how that pattern has been replicated in this joke of a sitting timetable which has been put before the parliament today and which the Deputy Leader of the House has just tried to sneak through, without giving appropriate notice to this side to the House. Trying to get this through without people realising what was going on is deeply dodgy. This is deeply dodgy.

What we see in this sitting timetable is: 4 March, ASEAN; 5 March, ASEAN; and 6 March, ASEAN. What does that mean? Does that mean the parliament is all going to ASEAN? No, it doesn't. What it means is that it's this Prime Minister's excuse. He's leapt on it desperately: 'I'm going to use some international travel obligations as another excuse to minimise the amount of time that this parliament sits!' This is showing contempt for the Australian people. It is showing contempt for the role of this parliament as a chamber which carries out its responsibility to hold this government to account, to subject it to the normal processes of parliamentary scrutiny. And, my goodness, isn't there so much to scrutinise under this hopeless, inept and incompetent government?

But let's just remind ourselves of the sharp contrast between what this Prime Minister used to say when he was in opposition and what he's actually doing now. In 2018 he had this to say about a sitting timetable that had been proposed, concluding in a frenzy of indignation:

… it is contemptuous of the democratic will of the people. It's contemptuous of this parliament as an institution. It is contemptuous of the rights of members of this House of Representatives and of senators to actually do the jobs that they are elected to do. And would we just go along with a timetable such as this?

Now the Prime Minister of this government insults this House, insults the people of Australia and insults parliamentarians who have a job to do, who are elected to come here and to subject this government to scrutiny, to ask questions during question time, to meet in parliamentary committees and to speak up for their constituents. These are the fundamental roles of parliamentarians and the fundamental job of this House. And yet, what we see from this Prime Minister is that he wants us to sign on to a parliamentary timetable which has only 17 sitting weeks. If you go back to Federation, the average number of sitting weeks has been 20. Seventeen weeks is well under the normal process and the normal meeting times for parliament to come together.

You have to ask: Why is this Prime Minister so afraid to front up to parliament? Why is he seizing every opportunity and every threadbare excuse to cancel scheduled sitting weeks and to minimise the number of weeks that the parliament sits? Why has he demonstrated a track record in this government of consistently seeking to minimise the amount of time that this parliament comes together?

Remember that this was a prime minister who, when he was in opposition, said he was going to do politics differently. He promised a new commitment to transparency and accountability. He is certainly doing it differently. What he's doing is transparently and nakedly taking every opportunity to avoid being subject to the normal processes of

parliamentary scrutiny, and he's doing it in the most crude and base way possible, which is by seeking to have as few days as possible for this parliament to meet. It is a disgrace that this sitting timetable has been proposed, it is a disgrace that this government is trying to sneak it through without proper consultation or notification to the opposition, and it is a disgrace that this government is showing contempt for elected parliamentarians and for the people of Australia, who send us here to do a job on their behalf.