Cabinet Manual

7.5 In most years the Prime Minister makes a statement to the House on the first sitting day. This statement is to review public affairs and to outline the government's legislative and other policy intentions for the next 12 months. (See the section entitled "Statements" in the chapter on non-legislative procedures in the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives (the Standing Orders.) The Prime Minister's statement is made in years when Parliament does not begin with either:

  1. a State Opening (and therefore a Speech from the Throne); or
  2. the completion of the Address in Reply debate on a Speech from the Throne given late in the previous year.