Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to these proposals to amend the standing orders, can I indicate on behalf of the opposition our support for them. We thank the Leader of the House for bringing them very expeditiously forward. I note that the Chair of the House of Representatives Procedure Committee, the honourable member for McPherson, is in this place. I would like to acknowledge the good role that she and the members of the Procedure Committee play in trying to make sensible changes to our standing orders to better facilitate the business of the House and provide opportunities for members. I do not want to comment on every aspect of these changes, but I do want to indicate the opposition’s strong support for the change in relation to members of parliamentary committees or those who served on parliamentary delegations not only being able to table their reports in the House of a Monday but, at 4 pm, being able to debate these reports in a timely way.

I think that this change, together with one other, will as we go forward be seen as a turning point for members in the importance with which they consider the Main Committee. It is true to say that the Main Committee’s role has evolved. I know that the chair of the Procedure Committee and the committee members generally, together with Deputy Speaker Causley, are very keen to see the ongoing development of the Main Committee. In particular, I am pleased that we are preserving in the Main Committee three-minute statements—a relatively new addition to opportunities for private members—and Main Committee adjournments. When I say that we are preserving them, they are often interrupted by divisions. Therefore, once the division is completed a member who was speaking or was listed to speak loses that opportunity. That will no longer be the case.

I might put on the record that from the opposition’s point of view we understand that there is a quid pro quo for that. In other words, where the government has reduced time for its bills in the Main Committee, the opposition will facilitate an extension to allow the government to complete its business. The Chief Government Whip and I have a very good relationship. Often matters involving the Main Committee largely depend on agreements reached between the Chief Government Whip and me, and I put on the record the opposition’s commitment that government business will not be harmed or delayed by making this important change that will benefit members.

I will mention one other thing, and that is the maintenance of order. I have always had a bit of a reservation about that, because it is the nature of the Main Committee that it is informal. You can have interventions in the Main Committee that you cannot hear. The debates tend to be far more relaxed and interactive. That is an atmosphere and an approach that we need to preserve. It is true that the only weapon that the Deputy Speaker or members of the Speaker’s panel have in relation to disorder is of course the catastrophic one of adjourning the House. The Deputy Speaker may now suspend members for 15 minutes. It is our expectation on the opposition side that this will be used lightly and that anyone occupying the chair would feel very much pressed to the nth degree before this suspension in the Main Committee were invoked.

Can I place on record the fact that in the Main Committee there is a much more free-flowing debate. It would be a disappointment to the opposition if a member were suspended on the basis that, in speaking to a bill, a very narrow construction of the confines of that bill were taken. That was the incident that I understand led to the request for this. But, Mr Deputy Speaker, I do not want to quibble with you. The opposition supports all these measures introduced by the Leader of the House. We thank him and, in particular, I again acknowledge the role of the chair of the committee, the honourable member for McPherson; our deputy chair, the honourable member for Banks, Mr Melham; and the other committee members for their work.

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