Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition lends support to the government’s changes to the standing orders in order to give parliamentary secretaries and ministers greater opportunities in the Main Committee. It was—when I was a minister and a parliamentary secretary—a vexing matter that you could not necessarily speak on the adjournments or in the Main Committee about issues to do with your local electorate. It seemed rather counterintuitive. We do support the opportunity for ministers and parliamentary secretaries to be able to range across issues that are of importance to their constituents, who make up, at least in my electorate, 98,000 voters and about 130,000 people. I am sure that in the electorates of ministers and parliamentary secretaries they would have similar numbers if not quite so great because South Australia has a higher number on average than most electorates across Australia due to a peculiarity in the Constitution, which we have talked about before. We do support the opportunity for parliamentary secretaries and ministers to be given the chance in the Main Committee to talk about their local electorates.

We also believe the change that would give parliamentary secretaries the opportunity to make statements in the Main Committee, which could then be responded to by shadow ministers, is an improvement to the Main Committee. I can think of other improvements to the Main Committee and to the chamber. I see the Chief Government Whip is in the House. He has been a longstanding advocate of change and reform in terms of the standing orders in both this place and the Main Committee. He and I served as chairman and deputy chairman many years ago of the Procedure Committee, my first very important appointment in this place by the former Prime Minister—

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