After adopting the 2013 sitting programme and holding the adjournment debate, the House of Representatives rose for the year on Wednesday, 12 December. The Speaker of the House, Dr The Rt Hon Lockwood Smith, gave the last speech, and in it he mentioned some statistics relating to proceedings in the House this year.
The House sat for 543 hours over 30 weeks. Only 9½ hours, or 2 percent, were under urgency. There were 35½ hours of extended sittings. Thirty four members’ bills were introduced (none were introduced in 2011). Of all the bills referred to select committees, only seven had a report-back date of less than 4 months (there were 13 in 2011). One hundred and twenty-five bills received the Royal assent, there were 1,100 oral questions answered and two members were expelled from the Chamber.
You can access archived video footage of the adjournment debate on the In The House website. The printed version (Hansard) is available on this website. See the related links panel on this page.
The first sitting day next year is 29 January. You can view the House sitting programme from the related links on this page, or under the 'Calendars' heading on the home page.