'Urgent and important,' David Pocock is campaigning for extra sitting days

The senator is seeking support to extend the sitting days for the year after the parliamentary calendar was disrupted due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The planned four days of sitting for last week have been rescheduled for a day of condolences for the Queen on Friday and three days only of normal parliamentary business next week from September 26 to 28.

The opposition has already flagged it is unhappy with the reduced number of parliamentary business days. but, after rescheduling, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese does not regard sitting days as lost.

Senator Pocock, who has been lobbying Senate colleagues since before the Queen's death to get territory rights listed for debate in the Senate, wants more time for parliamentary business before the year runs out.

"While I appreciate the conventions we observe following the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, following that I believe Australians expect politicians to be attending to the work of the Parliament in debating and legislating on behalf of our communities and our constituents," Senator Pocock said in a statement.

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Alicia Payne and Luke Gosling's private members' bill, designed to end a 25-year-old ban on the ACT and Northern Territory debating voluntary assisted dying laws, entered the Senate earlier this month and two sessions of debate were held before all listed speakers made their contributions.

During the second day of debate, Labor senator Pat Dodson flipped on his previous opposition to the territories legislating for voluntary assisted dying, now saying he does not want to stand in their way and will abstain when the bill comes to a vote.

Senator Pocock has flagged moving a motion in the Senate proposing an extension to parliament's sitting calendar.

"There are some really urgent pieces of legislation the Parliament needs to consider and vote on," the senator said.

"The government has a raft of legislation it is seeking to pass by the end of the year, everything from 10 days' paid Family and Domestic Violence leave to housing to the national anti-corruption commission.

"For people in the ACT and Northern Territory in particular, seeing debate continue on the Restoring Territory Rights Bill is urgent and important."

The manager of opposition business Paul Fletcher regards the Albanese government as scheduling the "lightest parliamentary workload" for many years and is concerned about the reduction of sitting days.

"It would have been better to replace four sitting days with four sitting days on a like for like basis, rather than reducing by one the number of days on which ordinary parliamentary business is done - including question time and other processes which are key to the accountability and scrutiny of government - in a year when the number of days scheduled for such business is already very light on," he told The Canberra Times.

But the Prime Minister regards the days as being rescheduled and so the legislation will be dealt with.

"We will, as soon as possible, catch up on the sitting days that would have occurred this week. But I have observed the protocols, and I think it's important that we've been able to do that whilst ensuring that no parliamentary sitting days have been lost," he told the ABC last Thursday.