Business Statement

From the close of the parliamentary day today, Parliament is scheduled to sit for only 11 weeks before the end of the year. There is a considerable volume of business on the Order Paper that the Government wishes to progress, with a lot more to come. Accordingly, next week it is the Government’s intention to move urgency to progress a number of bills on the Order Paper, including the Patents Bill, the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Amendment Bill, and the Family Court Proceedings Reform Bill, and a number of other Committee stages and first readings of bills currently on the Order Paper.

Can I ask the Leader of the House whether that includes orders of the day Nos 22 to 27—a number of first readings—because it appears that some of the select committees are running out of work because of inefficiency in this part of the House’s work.

Well, I would have thought there was plenty to keep that side of the House occupied over the next week—the next 4 weeks, in fact. However, as I said, it is the Government’s intention to move a number of first readings in the next week, and it is my intention that the full urgency motion, or the content of the urgency motion, will be made available to Opposition parties later in the week.