NSW Coalition succeeds in more family time for MPs push

Ridiculed ahead of the vote, a move to make the NSW Legislative Council more family friendly will go ahead for the rest of the year.

Don Harwin said two of his colleagues had told him they would have reconsidered their run for the upper house if they had known “they would virtually never be able to get home on Thursday nights”. Picture: Kelly Barnes/AAP

A contentious proposal to make the NSW Legislative Council more family friendly and inclusive for some female MPs will be implemented for the rest of this year following a vote in parliament on Wednesday night.

In a move criticised by Greens and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MPs, the government successfully swapped the allocated time for ‘general business’ on Thursdays with the less intensive ‘government business’ on Wednesdays.

As reported by The Australian on Monday, flipping these sessional orders will permit MPs to leave work early on Thursday nights because the volume and progress of government business tends to be less exhaustive than the alternative.

Critics have pointed out that parliament is already sitting for a low number of days this year — just 45 days compared with 56 when the Coalition was elected in 2011; traditionally parliament used to sit for about 60 days each year, they said.

Speaking in support of the motion, Don Harwin, the government’s leader in the Legislative Council, said two of his colleagues had told him they would have reconsidered their run for the upper house if they had known “they would virtually never be able to get home on Thursday nights”.

Because the parliament often sits late into the evening, and because there are no flights available, they are often forced to drive for several hours back to their communities from Sydney, or stay the night and arrive home late on Friday morning, he said.

Mr Harwin added that the current procedures were therefore “anti-family” for regional MPs and also a matter of workplace safety.

“It worries me that they have to drive home after a very long and often quite intense and stressful sitting week,” Mr Harwin said. “It is, in my view, a serious workplace safety issue.”

Neither house of parliament routinely sits on Friday.

Labor’s Adam Searle said he would not oppose the bill on behalf of the opposition and applauded its efforts to create a “more inclusive elected chamber”.

“We would not want to create barriers to participation for any person, but particularly for women who have had historical barriers to joining elected chambers,” said Mr Searle.

The motion passed with 32 in favour and five against, and will remain in place for the rest of 2020. It committee inquiry will subsequently examine the arrangements and report back on February 4 next year.

But some MPs denounced the motion for framing the changes around inclusivity, gender and families.

“As a regional father with three young kids I took on this job knowing there would be long hours,” said Shooters MP Mark Banasiak, taking aim at Nationals MP and Education Minister Sarah Mitchell, a key sponsor of the motion for the government. “I do not have the benefit of a $300,000-plus ministerial position to make that any better,” he said.

His colleague Robert Borsak said implementing the changes will effectively make Thursday a “lost day” that will allow the government to do less work.

“The Government cannot go ahead and cut a deal with the Opposition to see this happen in a way that is not right and that leaves the people of New South Wales out in the cold,” said Mr Borsak. “You take the money, you take the responsibility and you do the time.”

Greens MP Abigail Boy opposed the motion on a different basis – that it would leave MPs without sufficient time to prepare for debates. “We would be willing to accept it if it was amended,” she said.

A proposal from the Animal Justice Party to trial the motion until June was voted down.