Jeremy Rockliff

Premier of Tasmania



12 October 2017

Michael Ferguson, Leader of Government Business in the House of Assembly

Proposed Changes to Parliamentary Sitting Schedule

Following on from the Government’s announcement last week that the TasWater takeover vote would be delayed until after the Pembroke by-election due to the vacancy in Pembroke, I can now release the updated proposed Parliamentary sitting schedule for the remainder of the year.

The Legislative Council will still sit next week as planned (17-19 October), to allow for debate on the important Local Government Amendment (Targeted Review) Bill 2017 to be completed.

However, to ensure that every Member of the Legislative Council is able to have their say on the Government’s plan to take over TasWater, the next Legislative Council sitting week will take place during the week beginning 13 November.

The updated schedule means the remainder of the Legislative Council sitting weeks for 2017 are as follows:

-       17-19 October;

-       14-16 November;

-       21-23 November; and

-       28-30 November.

Under the previous schedule the Legislative Council was to sit during the following periods:

-       17-19 October;

-       31 October – 2 November;

-       14-16 November; and

-       21-23 November.

As is the case every year, both Houses must sit during the final sitting week for the year to ensure that any amendments to Bills are able to be dealt with as soon as possible.  Therefore, the last sitting week for the House of Assembly will be rescheduled from 21-23 November to 28-30 November.

To be clear, the number of sitting days scheduled for both Houses the remainder of the year has not changed.

The updated proposed schedule can be found on the Parliament House website: http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/Parliament/Combined%20Sitting%20Schedule%202017.pdf



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