Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I have a question to you.

Opposition Member:

An opposition member—The member for Wannon is seeking the call.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House has the call. Now you have alerted me to the member for Wannon, I will get to him when there is no business before me.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a question to you, Mr Speaker, and it goes to the conduct of question time, which is provided for in the standing orders to occur between 2 pm and 3.30 pm each day. Given that for the past five question times in a row that has not occurred, and question time has been concluded with a motion of suspension moved by the Leader of the Opposition, I ask the Speaker what precedents are there in order to ensure that question time can occur. Indeed, are there any occurrences whereby the ability to move a suspension of standing orders has itself been suspended by the government of the day in order to ensure that government business and the schedule can occur? Mr Speaker, as Leader of the House I certainly have received a number of complaints about question time being disrupted.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the House has the call!

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is my view that people do expect question time to take place and for the timetable to be not determined by the schedule of Play School at five past three on ABC TV.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the Leader of the House is aware, it has not been my practice to take questions on procedural matters. I will continue with that, and I am sure that the Chamber Research Office—while they might not be delighted that I am referring you to the Chamber Research Office—will have that information at their fingertips.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I have a question to you. Can you advise the House what mechanisms are available to you as the Speaker to ensure that the government does have question time until half past three each day, because every day for the past five days they have cut question time off at quarter past three or earlier.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is this same response, except I am not referring the Manager of Opposition Business to the Chamber Research Office.