Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I will say more when we get to the resolution, but the agreement, which has been put in place, has been done with respect to the sessional order, which we carried quite some weeks ago. When we carried it, it referred to the fact that it would be possible for the House to meet in a different manner and form, if circumstances occurred. When we put that in, it was described at the time by one of us—it may have been me—as a break-glass option, which we hoped to never use. Circumstances eventuated, which I will refer to later but are not appropriate to go to during a statement on indulgence, which caused us to hit that break-glass option.

It's important to note that what the Leader of the House and I have agreed on is not a virtual parliament. The parliament is meeting and it is meeting here. There has been capacity for a long time for members' speeches, when members weren't able to be here, to be tabled and effectively incorporated into the Hansard. What we're allowing is effectively an extension of that process where, when members want to make a contribution to a debate or discussion in different ways, they're able to do so via video link. But for all other purposes you have to be here. If you want to move something you have to be here. If you want to vote you have to be here. If you want to raise a matter of public importance or support a matter of public importance when the call for support goes up, standing up in your electorate office doesn't count. You have to physically be here.

So the parliament is not a virtual parliament. The parliament is still here, in Parliament House in Canberra. But, where members of parliament, through no fault of their own, have found themselves in circumstances where they simply can't be here because of COVID-19, we've allowed the video link to make sure that they can contribute—importantly, not for their convenience but for their electorates, to make sure the voices of their electorates are heard here inside the parliament.

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