Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for your courtesy, Mr Acting Deputy President. My challenge to the government is that they actually start walking the talk, as opposed to talking the walk. If they believe that the Greens are a problem for them—the Greens, who are causing a huge chasm within their own ranks between the Left and the Right of the ALP—then it is time they actually walked the talk and did something about it. I think Minister Conroy could well heed some advice on that one.

In closing, we are not going to support this variation of business hours. It is not because we do not want to be in this place. We do believe that the work we do here is vitally important. We do have concerns about the implications of this variation to business hours, which in effect will mean—including a possible visit from the President of the United States—that we will be in Canberra every week for a seven-week period, or something like that. This has huge ramifications for the effectiveness and the running of our electorate offices. It is a problem for those constituents who have organised meetings with us in advance. It is a problem for the work that we do at a local level. It means that members of parliament will not be able to get back and do the work that they do so assiduously when parliament is not sitting—because we know that the work of the federal parliament does not cease when people leave this place; there is an intensive business program on when people leave here. So this means that a lot of local constituent work will have to be put on hold.

We do not support this. We do not support this because it is just a shocking reflection on the government of the shambolic approach that they have taken to setting the legislative framework and schedule for this year. Even more concerning is the reflection on them of the way in which they are just responding to the agenda of the Greens. They are not in charge here. They are certainly not demonstrating that they are in control. They are very much responding to the demands—in many cases hysterical demands—of the Greens. It is a disgrace on them. I condemn them for the influence that the Greens have on them. We will not be supporting this.