Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That standing order 31 (automatic adjournment of the House) and standing order 33 (limit on business) be suspended for the sitting commencing on Thursday, 1 December 2022.

In moving this, I should give an update—which I suspect will not be my only update during the course of the day—as to how long we're likely to be in Canberra. I'm still advising, when speaking to a government members, that they should keep their diaries free, including Saturday, while we wait to see what happens in the Senate. There are two pieces of legislation in the Senate: one is the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 and the other is the Restoring Territory Rights Bill 2022. We are not expecting the Territory rights bill to be subject to amendment, so whether the House waits for that or not probably doesn't matter—it would simply be a reporting back and it would make no difference as the territory assemblies won't be sitting before we return in any substantial way, anyway. How long we remain in Canberra is probably not contingent on the Territory rights bill.

The secure jobs better pay bill will certainly be subjected to amendments, and the Senate is continuing to debate that. If the Senate deals with that relatively quickly, then there is a chance that notwithstanding asking people to remain here until Saturday we will deal with issues well before then. As the Senate debate continues, I will continue to update members. But this resolution certainly gives the House that flexibility that, if we are still waiting on the Senate this afternoon following the MPI, then shortly after that I will ask for the House to suspend. But by then we should have a better knowledge as to where the Senate's up to. I commend the resolution to the House.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I briefly want to note that it is not a novel situation that, as we are in the course of the last scheduled sitting day of the year, there is legislation being considered in the Senate which, should there be amendments, would require—if it's the government's desire, as they've indicated it is—being brought back to the House so that the House can consider the amendments.

I do make the point that it is novel to propose that the House sit on a Saturday. On ordinary principles, it would be considerably more efficient to deal with this once the Senate has concluded its deliberations. I acknowledge that the Senate will do that at its own pace and there are some uncertainties there, but I make the point that it would be a more efficient use of public resources if the government were to make every effort to have the House deal with the matter as promptly and efficiently as possible, once the Senate has concluded its deliberations. Again, I acknowledge that the conduct of Senate deliberations is a matter for that other place.

Question agreed to.