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

As Chairman of the Procedure Committee I can say we move heaven and earth to ensure that we have an interactive chamber and that every member in this House has every opportunity to speak. In fact, that is why we try and facilitate it. The MPI is not a debate; it is a discussion of a matter of public importance. I think what we need to do is look at the statistics for 2006. The member for New England referred to his own statistic of speaking 12 times in an MPI in 2006. Mr Deputy Speaker, 54 MPIs were submitted to this chamber last year; 50 of those were discussed; 35 of those had four or fewer speakers—that is 70 per cent of those MPIs. Fifteen of the MPIs, or 30 per cent, had more than four speakers. We have already heard that the average time for an MPI in this chamber is 58 minutes.

What the Leader of the House is proposing through his motion is to put in place a procedure that would give the Independents or the opposition two extra speakers. It would be part of the standing orders so that we would have two speakers at five minutes. It would actually encourage you to come into this chamber and make a contribution to an MPI. This is not about devaluing your contribution to any discussion or debate in this chamber. This is about encouraging you into the chamber. How often are you Independents in this chamber to make a contribution to the debate that occurs on the floor of this House? Not very often.

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