The federal parliamentary sitting schedule for 2008 is out. Parliament resumes on Tuesday 12 February but will sit most weeks from Monday to Friday for the first time since federation as Manager of Government Business in the House, Anthony Albanese, proudly pointed out yesterday.

It’s a bugger if you’re an MP from the West or the Northern Territory. It will be a real restriction on the amount of constituency work members of the Reps can do during sitting fortnights.

Indeed, it will be interesting to see if it continues in 2009 and subsequent years as Labor’s marginal MPs seek to hold their seats.

It’s never too early to think of the next election, and now we have a sitting schedule we can start plotting dates.

Everyone always forgets. Election timing isn’t decided by the last election. It’s decided by when the parliament sits.

We could yet see Kevin11 t-shirts – and then after them, Maxine14?