Labor has written to the government insisting that the lower house should sit for a full week, including question time, when parliament is recalled on 18 April.
The manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, made the call on Wednesday in a letter to leader of the House of Representatives, Christopher Pyne.
Burke questioned why reports said the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, only intends to sit for part of the week, despite Pyne saying “we’re the last people who want to avoid question time”.
Burke said “nearly 150 MPs and their staff will travel from around the country to attend the new session of parliament in Canberra on 18 April, at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars”. Taxpayers were entitled to expect the MPs do a full week’s work, he said.
“The Australian people should not be expected to indulge a part-time prime minister.”
Burke told Sky News Turnbull “shouldn’t be able to duck and weave just because he didn’t like what happened in the intervening weeks, they’ve been pretty ordinary weeks”.
He said Turnbull should answer questions in question time about plans for state governments to levy income tax, claims the federal government’s education fundings cuts would see it cease support for public schools, and the issue of whether cabinet secretary Arthur Sinodinos knew developer donations were allegedly sent to the NSW Liberal party through the Free Enterprise Foundation.
“There’s a lot he needs to be asked and he’s ducking for cover.”
Pyne told Guardian Australia: “We don’t get pushed around by Labor bullying. We will decide the parliamentary programme, not the Labor Party.”
Pyne said the call for further lower house sittings and question time was an attempt “to distract people from the fact that Labor is supporting the [Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union] over reform of the building and construction industry”.
In a response to Burke, Pyne said the government would not “unnecessarily detain members of the house of representatives in Canberra simply because a dysfunctional Senate has been unwilling to do its job” by delaying a vote on the ABCC bill.
No bills are currently listed for debate in the lower house, but it is expected it will pass the registered organisations bill to return it to the Senate and also a new bill to delay minimum pay rates for owner-drivers in the trucking industry following concerns the minimum rates will put independent contractors out of work.
The Labor plan for the lower house to sit for the whole week from 18 April comes after crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm warned the Senate may return but refuse to sit and deliberate on the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill.
On Wednesday at the National Press Club Leyonhjelm warned that Labor could vote to delay debate.
“Don’t go reporting this as fact ... but if Labor moved a motion on the 18th or 19th of April to adjourn the Senate until 3 or 10 May, I reckon most of my crossbench colleagues would support it.”
