Page 302 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
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It is a comprehensive-change proposal, Mr Hanson. He is seeking to do that without any prior discussion with other parties. The dates he proposes are not acceptable to the government. In particular, a large number of those dates clash with a range of other commitments, particularly a large number of ministerial councils which ministers will need to attend during those dates. The sitting calendar is traditionally developed to try to avoid those clashes wherever possible and to avoid clashes around school holidays and a range of other dates where members will have other commitments.
For that reason, the government will not be supporting those changes. If Mr Hanson had come to me earlier, certainly before this sitting period, we may have been able to accommodate some of those dates, but at this late hour that is simply now not possible. I regret that and I regret that the Liberal Party have not been able to provide more detailed advice prior to the sitting, despite repeated requests to do so. I commend to members the sitting pattern as outlined in my motion.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (11.47): I move:
Omit all dates after 2009, substitute:
|
February |
10* |
11 |
12 |
|
17* |
18 |
19 | |
|
March |
24* |
25 |
26 |
|
March/April |
31* |
1 |
2 |
|
May |
5* |
6 |
7 |
|
11 | |||
|
June |
16* |
17 |
18 |
|
23* |
24 |
25 | |
|
August |
11* |
12 |
13 |
|
18 |
19 |
20 | |
|
25* |
26 |
27 | |
|
September |
8* |
9 |
10 |
|
15 |
16 |
17 | |
|
October |
13* |
14 |
15 |
|
27 |
28 |
29 | |
|
November |
10* |
11 |
12 |
|
17* |
18 |
19 | |
|
December |
1* |
2 |
3 |
*Evening sitting—7.30 pm to 10 pm
Firstly, if I could make a correction to the minister’s point about the ministerial councils and the dates that we have proposed, there is no conflict. The dates that have been chosen are in areas on the calendar that was initially put forward by the government, to make sure there was no conflict with those. Secondly, we did have some consultation; we had consultation with the crossbench about this issue.
Certainly I welcome at the outset the increase from 13 sitting weeks, as was initially proposed by the government, to the 14 weeks that they have now negotiated with the crossbench, but we certainly would consider that insufficient and will be calling, as part of this amendment that you see before you, for that to be increased to 16 weeks. Really, we see that as very much the minimum that this Assembly should be sitting.
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