What is a Parliament ‘Sitting Week’?
What exactly is a sitting week?
Sitting weeks are periods of time where Members of Parliament (MP’s) converge upon Parliament House in Canberra to debate and vote on official government matters.
There have been three sitting periods each year since 1994. Autumn - February to April, Budget - May to June, and Spring - August to December. Exact dates are decided at the start of each year. Sitting weeks run from Monday to Thursday, two weeks on, two weeks off.
To watch it live here, you’ll have to set you alarm depending on the day. Mondays start at 10am, Tuesdays at 12pm, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9:30am. However, you’ll be settling in for a long day. Sitting days adjourn (finish) between 5pm and 8pm depending on the day. Make sure to get your snacks at the ready and stay hydrated!
What can you expect to see in a sitting day?
Starting the day
5 minutes before the meeting of the House bells ring throughout Parliament House, calling all Members to the Chamber. A light will flash depending on the attending Members of the day.
· Green for House of Representatives
· Red for Senators
After 5 minutes, the bells stop. The Speaker enters the chamber, escorted by the Serjeant-at-Arms carrying the Mace. The Speaker begins the day with an Acknowledgement of Country and Prayers.
2. Government business
Official ‘Government business’ (their words, not mine) takes up most of the parliamentary sitting day. During this time, any notices and ‘orders of the day’ are addressed in the order they appear on the Notice Paper; made available before every sitting day here.
A notice is new motions to be moved or bills (proposed law or changes to law) to be presented to the House of Representatives of Senate. The title of the notice is read aloud by the Clerk and is then explained in detail by the proposing Minister.
An ‘order of the day’ is any past notices that remain up for debate. These may be second readings of bills or documents from past motions.
A vote will be taken after the item has been discussed; by division (counting for and against votes) or on the voices (no count, but listen for ‘aye’ or ‘no’).
3. Members’ 90 second statements
As the title suggest, Members are given 90 seconds to make a statement on any matter of concern. This section usually goes for around 30 minutes.
4. Question Time
You may have already seen clips of Question Time on the news or social media. Question Time is a heated debate between MP’s in the House of Reps and Senators in the Senate. Questions can get quite personal, trying to highlight the other side’s shortcomings in the eyes of the public.
Question Time goes for about 70 minutes. The Speaker begins Question Time by asking “are there any questions?”. Members stand and are chosen by the Speaker to present their question. Members not selected either wait until the next Question Time or can be sent to the Minister for a written response.
5. Presentation of documents
An update of annual reports by government agencies or reports of investigations into the government, e.g., a Royal Commission.
6. Matter of public importance
Debate of a single issue that is considered the most important for the ‘public’. It is usually the opposition, and the support of at least eight Members, that want to critique of the government’s decision on a matter. This section goes for 1 hour or until a Member says, “that the business of the day be called on”.
7. Ministerial statements
This part doesn’t always happen. They are opposition statements by the Shadow Minister, which are responded to by the relevant Minister and other Members of the House. However, it is more of an official discussion, as Ministerial statements are provided to them in advance and negotiations are often made before the sitting day.
8. Government business
9. Adjournment Debate - 30 minutes before the meeting of the House finishes
Speaker states “That the House do now adjourn”. Any business interrupted in this way is placed on the Notice Paper for consideration the next day. During this time, private, non-government and government Members can speak for 5 minutes on any matter discussed throughout the sitting day. Debate is interrupted at the assigned time (5pm or 8pm) but can be continued upon request for a further 10 minutes.
This article was written by Madeline Pentland in collaboration with the Australian Catholic University’s Politics and International Relations Society.
About Madeline Pentland
I am in my fourth and final year of Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Global Studies at Australian Catholic University. I love to talk all things History and Australian Politics with pretty much anyone that will listen!
