PARLIAMENT, SITTING PROGRAM

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:22): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government a question regarding sitting hours.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I observe that at the conclusion of today's sitting we will have only nine sitting days until the state election in March 2010. On my calculations that leaves us with 156 days from today to the election, of which this parliament will sit for only nine days. Given the precedent of the last election, where the parliament, if we ignore the ceremonial 27 April sitting, effectively did not sit until 2 May—about 40 days after the election—we face 196 days with only nine sitting days or, looking at it another way, once the parliament rises on 3 December we will have 106 days without the parliament sitting.

Recent research I have conducted demonstrates that this year our parliament ranks right near the bottom nationwide on the number of sitting days. I also note that the present process of determining sitting hours involves no consultation with cross bench and Independent members and largely involves the government dictating to the opposition when parliament will sit. My questions to the leader, therefore, are:

1. Does the leader believe this lack of sitting days is good governance?

2. Will the leader consider a more consultative approach with other members in the setting of sitting hours?

3. Why does the government want to hide from the scrutiny of the parliament?

4. Will the government support my call to bring back the parliament in February for two sitting weeks?

5. Is the government trying to turn this council into the kangaroo council that a government backbencher described it as last night?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:24): Is it not extraordinary—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! We have a lot of government business to finish, so we will have the minister heard in silence.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: It was inevitable that we would get a question like that. If one looks back through the history of this parliament dating right back into the Playford era of the 1950s and 1960s, one will see that in that period elections were held regularly. Tom Playford used to call them the first Saturday in March every three years. In those days the parliament did not sit between October or November of the year before right through to the middle of the next year. That was the way it was done. There have been elections regularly in March ever since. If it has ever happened, parliament has rarely, if ever, sat in the first part of the year. That is the first point I would make. The honourable member talked about the lack of sitting hours. Yesterday this parliament sat—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: —all day until the late hours of the evening and there was not one bit of government business transacted. If one wants to go back—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Because of what? How ridiculous it is to say that the government controls the council. If only we did. The fact is that, because the opposition and minor parties, in conjunction, control this chamber, we spend hours and hours discussing private members' business rather than government business. Can someone name another upper house in a parliament in this country—or in this world—where an entire day, week after sitting week, is spent entirely on private members' business? It happens here all the time. When this government has tried to reform sitting hours like the lower house has so that we have more reasonable sitting times for members without lengthy sittings at night, it has invariably been opposed.

The fact is that this parliament, during the course of the Rann government, has sat more frequently than the government of which the honourable member who asked the question was a member—significantly more.

An honourable member: That's untrue.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: It is quite true. You go and check it out. We have sat—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: The fact is that this parliament has more than adequate time at its disposal to deal with the business of government in the remaining period if it wishes to do so. I have no doubt that all sorts of games will be played, but we will deal with those as they surface. As I said, if one looks at the amount of time that is devoted to private members' business, there would be no other parliament in this country, or possibly in the world, that would devote as much time as this parliament does to private members' business.