‘Part-time parliament’ sitting for fewest days in 20 years

MPs will sit in the House of Representatives for fewer days this year than any other in the past two decades, limiting time for scrutiny of the government’s agenda and debates on legislation.

Analysis of parliamentary sitting calendars from 2004 to the draft 2025 calendar revealed MPs in the lower house will spend 40 days this year passing laws, two weeks less than the average of 48 sitting days during previous election years.

Independent ACT senator David Pocock accused the government of presiding over a “part-time parliament” that will not sit again until late July, when the make-up of the Senate will change to reflect the recent federal election, making it more favourable for Labor.

“It’s pretty light on this year, I would have thought Australians would want parliament to crack on,” Pocock said.

Each year, and after every election, the government decides how many days each chamber of parliament will sit.

In 2025, the total expected sitting days, including the Senate, will be 76, the second-lowest number of days in parliament for all MPs in the past 20 years. The lowest was in the previous election year, 2022, which had 75 sitting days.

The current MP’s base salary of $233,660 equates to about $5840 per sitting day this year. Sitting days are when parliament debates and passes legislation, and the government is scrutinised via question time, but MPs do extensive work outside sitting days, such as meeting with constituents and drafting policy.

Labor’s leader of the house Tony Burke, who is responsible for the party’s tactics in that chamber, defended the calendar by saying the government had made structural changes to parliamentary procedure to make things more efficient.

“We’ve cut out the endless time voting on whether to silence someone and debating whether someone can speak,” he said. “The federation chamber is now considering more legislation than ever before, which means the house is effectively debating different legislation in different locations at the same time.”

Greens senator and party whip Nick McKim slammed the dwindling schedule, especially the 10 blank weeks on the calendar after the May 3 election – parliament sits for the first time on July 22.

Independent senator David Pocock has quipped it is a “part-time parliament”.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“This is a lazier schedule than [former prime minister] Scott Morrison’s – and that’s really saying something,” he said.

“It’s a lighter schedule than … any other election year, and reveals a government completely devoid of drive and purpose.”

In election years, sitting days are limited by parliament being dissolved for the campaign. The lower house sat for 61 days in 2004, for 50 days in 2007 and 55 days in 2010. More recent election years have seen a fall in the number of sitting days, with 48 days in 2013, 51 days in 2016, 45 days in 2019 and 41 days in 2022.

It is typical for parliament to avoid sitting in July. However, May and June are usually packed with sitting weeks, in a bid to pass legislation before the end of the financial year. Before the election was called, parliament was scheduled to sit in those months.

“Clearly [Albanese’s] not wanting to deal with the old Senate. School holidays is probably the other excuse for not sitting in July,” Pocock said.

The lack of sitting days in May or June will mean the Albanese government’s 20 per cent cut to student HECS debt, which was promised to come into effect on June 1, has not yet been legislated and will have to be backdated.

Education Minister Jason Clare said it would be the first legislation Labor introduces when parliament returns.

“This builds on the changes we made last year to make indexation fairer, and all up this means we are wiping close to $20 billion in student debt,” he said.

Newly appointed Coalition manager for opposition business Alex Hawke said it was understandable for a government to take time to organise itself after a large election win, but setting only eight weeks for the remainder of the year suggested Labor’s agenda was thin.

“The opposition is concerned that we could already be seeing a lack of a firm agenda from this government as well as a more obvious attempt to avoid proper examination of those laws that the government is seeking to pass,” he said.

“So soon after the public has gifted the Labor Party with a substantial majority in the house and a nominal majority in the Senate, why is the government not seeking more time in parliament to ensure it can act to fix the issues?”

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.