Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the member for Chifley and the comments he has made today on these amendments to the standing orders. I would like to put on record some comments, as the Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure, with regard to the amendments that were introduced by the Leader of the House today. I think all members of the Standing Committee on Procedure have worked tirelessly to ensure in particular that members have more opportunities to speak. It is to that end that we put up a number of recommendations, and I am delighted that they have been accepted by the Leader of the House and will become sessional orders for the remainder of 2006.

The five matters that we have before us today are certainly important, but I will confine my remarks particularly to the delegation and committee reports and the opportunities for members to speak on these reports. I think most of us in this House agree that the opportunity for members to speak on these reports has been very small. The opportunity has not been there. It is usually the chairman and the deputy chairman of a committee who have the opportunity to speak on a report. Members put a lot of time into those reports, and I can remember listening to a debate prior to Christmas in the Main Committee on a report brought down regarding overseas adoption. The debate that ensued in the Main Committee certainly teased out a lot of the problems, a lot of the great recommendations that came from that report and the work that had been done by members of that committee.

So I think all of us in this House applaud this forward thinking and opening up of opportunities for members to speak on these reports. In my own view, these reports have been undervalued by the parliament. In fact, many of the recommendations that come through the reports end up in legislation. Members, though, in the past have not had the opportunity to speak on those reports, and I think all members in this House will value the time that they are going to have to be able to speak.

Protecting members’ three-minute statements from divisions in the House and ensuring that that time is given back to members is most important. At the moment, once a division is called that time is lost and members do not have an opportunity to get that time back on that day. I thank the Leader of the House for taking on board that recommendation of the Procedure Committee.

In summing up, I would like to thank all members of the Standing Committee on Procedure. As a group we have worked extremely well together. We have worked hard on bipartisan reports, but, more than that, the aim of the committee has always been for the benefit of members of this House to give them every opportunity to put forward their views and engage in interactive debate. I think we have been able to achieve that. During the last parliament the member for Chifley was the Deputy Chair of the Procedure Committee, and I welcome the member for Banks and his contribution in this parliament and appreciate how we have been able to work together. On behalf of everyone on the committee, I commend the Leader of the House and the government for moving forward on these recommendations.

Question agreed to.

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