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

on indulgence—I want to advise members of likely arrangements at the end of the session, given where we're at with the Senate. We had very good progress last week with the Senate for legislation that they were considering, and the Senate put in some extraordinary hours last week. The last couple of days we were making reasonable progress with legislation. Today some of the speaking lists have gone back out again, and trying to second-guess where this will land is something that I don't want to necessarily make bold undertakings on.

I advise members to work on the basis that the Senate is unlikely at this point to have got through all of its legislation when we would normally rise on Thursday. That being the case, my expectation at this stage is, if that is the case, we won't do a late night. What we would do would be to suspend at around the normal time and then come back for a brief sitting on the Friday morning. The different occasions when I've seen the House wait for the Senate to finish have often resulted in what was meant to be one hour becoming seven, and we end up staying here for not necessarily much point.

It is also the case that if they have got through the legislation but it looks like no bills are going to require amendment then there is a scenario where we would still be able to adjourn on Thursday, even if they are still going with business, because nothing would actually have to come back to us before it could be dealt with. There are a number of pieces of legislation that are time-sensitive, and if they do end up requiring amendment, there is no way of being able to send them to the Governor-General unless we receive and endorse those amendments.

So at this stage I'd encourage members, as I always do, to work on the basis that they are likely to be required to be here on the Friday morning. If that's the case, it will be a very brief Friday morning I expect, because the different amendments that are being spoken about are unlikely to be highly controversial in terms of debates and votes. If I get more information, certainly I'll continue to update the House, but that's the latest I've got.

There is a debate management motion before the Senate at the moment that might fix all of this, but I don't know whether it's going to get the required number of votes or not. I'll keep members informed.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the House for the update. On indulgence—I have a lot of work to get through here.

Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the minister at the table, Mr Burke: if the parliament was to come back on the Friday morning, what time do you think the parties will be called back?

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

I normally work on the basis of nine o'clock as the normal starting time being the time that works for most people. There are occasions when people put compelling reasons and we adjust that, but the rule of thumb is ordinarily nine o'clock.