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Australia's parliament will return next week for a day of condolences from politicians following a national memorial service for the Queen.
- Cancelled sitting days due to the Queen's death will be made up this month
- The Prime Minister has defended suspending parliament for a fortnight
- He argued a national holiday was also needed to pay tribute to the Queen
A service in the great hall of Parliament House will be held next Thursday, which has been made a public holiday, and marked as a national day of mourning.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says parliament will sit the next day for to hear condolence motions, with another three sitting days added for the following week.
Mr Albanese himself will be out of the country for several of those sitting days, as he travels to Japan with other former prime ministers to attend the memorial of the former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
The sitting days were added after parliament was suspended for a fortnight out of respect for the Queen's death.
Mr Albanese responded to criticisms that parliament was not doing its work, saying it would not have been appropriate to continue.
"I, as Prime Minister, have followed the procedures that have been in place a lot longer than I have been in place," Mr Albanese said.
"I think there is something to be said about a prime minister who follows traditions, who follows protocol, who follows order.
"If the parliament was sitting this week ... the idea that we could be debating Question Time as usual, the idea that we could be having the engagement as if it were business as usual, I believe is not correct."
The Prime Minister thanked Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for his cooperation on finding new sitting days.
Mr Dutton has also supported next Thursday, September 22, being made a one-off national public holiday.
Mr Albanese said he understood the holiday would be inconvenient for some people, but it was an appropriate response to the death of Australia's monarch.
"This is the first time we've had a change of a head of state and in which we have been in a position where Australia needs to and wants to give thanks to the contribution of Queen Elizabeth II as our head of state for 70 years.
"A national day of mourning is an appropriate response," he said.
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