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Canberra Today 15°/19° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Morrison moves to cancel parliament to protect the ACT

Empty house… Parliament sitting to be cancelled.

ACTING Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has issued advice saying there is a significant risk to the ACT in allowing federal parliament to sit early next month due to increased community transmission of COVID-19 in Victoria and the trends in NSW.

As a result, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has written to the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate to request the upcoming sitting fortnight of the federal parliament be cancelled.

“The government cannot ignore the risk to parliamentarians, their staff, the staff within the Parliament, and the broader community of the ACT that holding a parliamentary sitting would create,” Mr Morrison said.

“In addition, it is not feasible nor desirable to hold a sitting of Parliament that would exclude parliamentarians from a single state.”

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has accepted Mr Morrison’s decision.

MPs and senators were scheduled to return to Parliament House for the first two weeks of August.

Prof Kelly says: “The entry of a high-risk group of individuals could jeopardise the health situation in the ACT and place residents at unnecessary risk of infection.

“It is my medical advice that, despite proposed mitigation measures, these risks would be significantly higher in the context of a parliamentary sitting period due to the number of persons travelling from Victoria and the inevitable mixing with ACT residents, members, senators, staff and visitors within Parliament House.”

Parliament is now due to return on August 24.

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