Summary:

• Australian Parliament suspended for 5 months until 11 August.
• Number of sitting days for 2020 cut by 21, which is almost a 30% reduction in the 72 scheduled sitting days for the House of Representatives originally planned for the year.
• Other democracies facing coronavirus have limited the impact on parliamentary sitting, losing 0-9 sitting days, and have put in place other accountability measures including NZ’s Epidemic Response Committee