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Hate speech to be included in religious discrimination reforms
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Catastrophic bushfire conditions in parts of Victoria today
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Sydney park closed after asbestos found in mulch
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Survivors of stolen generations represent ‘gap within the gap’, advocates say
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Demand for homelessness services surges across NSW, analysis shows
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Good morning
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Florence the tunnelling machine back in action for Snowy
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Government to spend $707m on jobs programs in central Australia
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Queensland Greens MP severely injured in car crash in Brisbane
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8 minutes ago
17.32 EST
Sarah Basford Canales
Parliamentary calendar to remain unchanged despite pushback
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, says the 2024 parliamentary sitting calendar won’t change after the opposition suggested it wasn’t “family friendly” as it coincided with a number of public and school holidays.
This morning in Senate estimates, Gallagher is appearing alongside the Jenkins Report Implementation Team and officials from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
It’s a little bit insider baseball but ensuring the parliamentary calendar is family friendly is a recommendation of the Jenkins report to make Parliament House a safer, more respectful workplace.
The Liberal senator Jane Hume quizzed the head of the Jenkins report team, Christy England, on whether she was consulted about the sitting calendar. She said she wasn’t.
Hume pointed out the last time politicians had to sit on the Thursday before Good Friday was 2008. She said that’s because it’s difficult for staff, particularly those returning to Western Australia, to get flights home the evening before the public holiday.
Gallagher responded the sitting calendar isn’t new – it was presented and agreed to by the Senate at the end of last year. The finance minister said changes had already been made, such as not having Friday sitting days and axeing evening divisions, but added it wasn’t possible to accommodate sitting weeks around every school holiday across the country.
Gallagher said she’d discuss with Hume about getting staff home before Good Friday.
Updated at 17.36 EST
11 minutes ago
17.29 EST
What happens in the party room stays in the party room
The party room meetings are under way. We will bring you those updates when they start breaking up.
The parties hold their all-in meetings on Tuesdays (Monday is for cabinet, senior teams, separate Liberal and National party meetings and so on) and afterwards hold an “on background” briefing which details the minutes which were taken at the meeting.
It’s where you’ll often see “party room sources” used. No names are given about MP contributions, instead journalists have to work it out by speaking to people afterwards.
As we have discussed it is a weird Canberra quirk – what happens in party room stays in party room, except…
2024-02-12 17:33:18
Article from www.theguardian.com
