Parliament resumes on 9th February 2010

Parliament will resume sitting on Tuesday, 9 February at 2pm.

The business programme will begin with the debate on the Prime Minister’s Statement. Under the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives, before the House meets on the first sitting day of the year the Prime Minister must present to the House a statement reviewing public affairs and outlining the Government’s legislative and other policy intentions for the next 12 months. At 2 p.m. the Prime Minister will move a motion relating to the statement. The subsequent debate on the statement is taken ahead of all other Government orders of the day.

Parliament last sat in mid-December, but during the holiday period there have been numerous visitors to Parliament itself. Over a period of three weeks from 27 December 2009, Parliament hosted 7,689 visitors. The busiest single day was 5 January when there were 464 visitors - more than treble the average number of daily visitors. The average number of visitors per day during the period was 343.

Information for visitors wanting to take a tour of Parliament can be found here.

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