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

I will take him back to July, August and October last year, when I and senators on the crossbenches said, ‘When you plan your program for 2010, put enough sitting weeks in that program. Don’t make it the shortest program of sitting weeks you’ve ever had.’ This is what the government has done for two years in a row. You cannot then come in at the last minute and say, ‘We need additional sitting hours,’ when you had the chance back in October. What have they done? The Prime Minister, who knows very little about the Senate and is starting to wake up that the Senate is quite an important place, has planned the entire sitting schedule against his overseas travel itinerary. We need more sitting weeks—that is correct, Senator Conroy—but you should have planned it in October last year; you cannot just do it on the day before you want extra sitting hours.