Scores of New South Wales (NSW) MPs will earn the equivalent of more than $10,000 (US$6,480) per sitting week in 2025 after a bid to increase the year’s 16-week calendar was rejected.
The Labor government’s lower house schedule for MPs earning $172,500 (US$111,800) a year is several weeks short of the recent average, barring years impacted by state elections or COVID-19.
An opposition bid to add two extra weeks was rejected this week after Labor cited restrictions imposed by upper house events in Australia’s first and oldest parliament.
The change would have done away with six Friday sittings, which have been criticised for having no question time and depriving regional MPs of a weekday in their electorate with voters.
“No politician should want to work in a part-time parliament,” Helen Dalton, independent MP for the rural electorate of Murray, told AAP.
The government said many other weeks in the year were set aside for committee hearings or budget estimates hearings.
“When we add school holidays and other periods—for example, public holiday weeks, when we are not able to sit—the ability to extend the number of sitting days in a workable way is extremely limited,” the government’s leader in the lower house Ron Hoenig said.
He defended holding Friday sessions in six of the 16 weeks, saying it allowed more time to pass legislation and offered crossbenchers dedicated time to advocate for their electorates.
But Dalton said the minority Minns government needed to learn to “listen to, and work with the cross-bench and even the opposition.”
“To do this, government MPs have to turn up to parliament and discuss matters,” she said.
“Voters won’t be happy that government MPs would prefer to hide in their electorate offices rather than turning up to parliament where they face scrutiny.”
The 16-week schedule also prompted Speaker Greg Piper to deliver a rare rebuke to the government as he detailed efforts to meet more often had met opposition from upper house Labor chiefs.
He said 20 to 21 sitting weeks a year—as occurred many times in the past decade—seemed more in line with community expectations.
“That seemed to be a fairly typical number of sitting weeks and one that I would have thought was consistent with the desires of the house and the expectations of the community,” he said.
The opposition said allowing only 48 days with question time was “an absolute affront to democracy.”
“Friday sitting days are a complete and utter waste of time if they do not have question time,” lower house leader of opposition business Alister Henskens said.
Henskens’s bid to add two extra weeks, and six extra question time days, to the calendar was knocked back 51 to 36 votes.
The base salary for a lower house MP in NSW is $172,500 with allowances for independent MPs, committee chairs, and other roles.
