MEDIA RELEASE: Government still has no plan for Parliament

The Turnbull Government continues to be plagued by chaos and dysfunction having failed to outline its plans for Malcolm Turnbull’s stunt sitting of Parliament.

In just seven days around 150 MPs and their staff will fly to Canberra for this extraordinary sitting of Parliament and the Government has failed to provide any information about its plans.

Last week, when asked about when Parliament will sit, Christopher Pyne told ABC Radio:

“That decision is something that we will make over the course of the next few days, I assume.”

CHRISTOPHER PYNE - ABC RADIO - WEDNESDAY, 6 APRIL 2016

A few days have now passed and the Government has failed to provide any further information.

Last week I wrote to Christopher Pyne asking the Government to provide the Parliamentary sitting pattern and a complete list of bills the Government will seek to have the Parliament consider. Again, he has failed to provide this information.

Here we have the Leader of the House - the person who is supposed to be responsible for managing the Government’s agenda in the House of Representatives - and he doesn’t know what’s going on.

It’s looking more and more like Malcolm Turnbull will hit Australians with the massive bill of recalling Parliament and then run away from full scrutiny by failing to have Question Time every day.

If Mr Turnbull expects the taxpayer to pay for the cost of his extraordinary sittings of the Parliament, then he should turn up to Question Time each and every day from Monday to answer for his actions. 

The Opposition expects Mr Turnbull to stop hiding from scrutiny and commit to a full parliamentary working week with Question Time from Monday. The Australian people should not be expected to indulge a part-time Prime Minister. 

APRIL 11, 2016