Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

That's rubbish; I never would have bagged you! You lost 76 votes in the 43rd Parliament; I'll give you the table.

Opposition members interjecting—

There are 17 sitting weeks—I'm being rudely interrupted, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker—which is about the average, and they are evenly spread between the first half of the year and the second half of the year. We will begin sitting again on 12 February, and the budget will be on 2 April, and there will be a normal period of about four or five weeks before the budget, in which time the Treasurer will prepare the first surplus budget since the last coalition government. Obviously, there's an election next year, in 2019, due by midyear. Whoever wins the election—which we hope will be the coalition!—will probably return in the second half of the year with a different sitting schedule, but obviously we are required to put a whole year of proposed parliamentary sittings to the parliament. I commend the sitting schedule to the House.

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