Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the House amend the notice relating to the amendment of standing orders 1, 2, 29, 31, 33, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 54, 55, 86, 100, 104, 108, 132, 133, 141, 143, 192, 192b, 215, 222, 229 and 232; deletion of standing orders 41a and 192a; and insertion of new standing order 222a as follows:

Due to technical issues the standing orders will be loaded for the Official

This is a great day for parliamentary reform in this chamber. On this day we have very broad agreement, with a possible couple of exceptions, to begin down the road of parliamentary reform. These changes reflect the Agreement for a Better Parliament: Parliamentary Reform, as agreed by the Leader of the House on behalf of the Labor Party, the Manager of Opposition Business on behalf of the coalition and the member for Lyne on behalf of the non-aligned members, and signed on 6 September 2010.

Components of the changes also go to agreements reached between the government and the member for Denison and the government and the Australian Greens. Drafts of these amendments were provided to the opposition and non-aligned members on Saturday, and since then we have been engaged in discussion to ensure that there is as broad as possible agreement for these changes.

The government is committed to reform of the parliament and has a record of defending the rights of independent members to participate fully in parliamentary processes. This package of amendments seeks to make the parliament more accessible to all 150 members of the House of Representatives. It represents a transfer of power and influence in this place from a concentration in the executive, to bring a focus on the contribution that the 150 members of the House of Representatives can make. As an opposition member I moved a private member’s bill to ratify the Kyoto protocol—now done; I moved a private member’s bill to enact superannuation rights for same-sex couples—now done; I moved a private member’s bill to restrict the number of flights into or out of Sydney airport to 80 an hour—now done; and I moved a private member’s bill to allow for an Aviation Noise Ombudsman—now done. I know firsthand the contribution that individual members of parliament can make and I encourage members to take up these opportunities.

Importantly, however, for these changes to work, for the parliament to continue to operate effectively, there also must be cooperation from all 150 members. I said on the day of the group hug that without goodwill it is just a bit of paper. We need to continue to work in a cooperative way and build consensus wherever we can. By all means have differences, but recognise what our responsibilities to the nation are. Goodwill from all members will ensure that this package of reforms makes parliament a better place.

From the outset I would like to thank the member for Lyne for his perseverance and constructive attitude in these matters. He will continue to play a key role in shaping these reforms in practice, giving them the best shot of success and of course also reviewing their effectiveness. As the agreement stipulates, all of these reforms will be reviewed over the course of this five-week sitting period. All House related initiatives are to be subject to informal monitoring by the Procedure Committee, with the committee to hold round table meetings to discuss progress and any necessary refinements to the detail. The committee will present a formal report on the first year of operation of the new arrangements, but in between there should be discussion between the government, the opposition and the crossbenchers about how it works in practice and whether any refinements are needed prior to parliament returning next year. I also note that the trial of questions and answers at the end of speeches is implemented by sessional order only.

The government also acknowledges that there will inevitably be resource implications in developing and sustaining this new framework. Overall, these changes provide for almost quadruple the time allocated to and increased prominence of private members’ business, a more efficient question time with time limits on questions and answers, and better resourcing for and a restructuring of the committee system.

I will go through these changes in detail; however, firstly I want to make clear that not all the reforms contained in the Agreement for a Better Parliament require or indeed are suitable for implementation through the standing orders. These reforms will require development through cooperation and practice. Indeed, one of the contentious issues, the issue of pairing—whether it be pairing of the Speaker or pairing between members—has always been a matter of practice and is not reflected in standing orders. We believe that it is unfortunate that the opposition walked away from the commitment they signed up to, which was that the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker be paired in this House. That would have avoided some of the contentious issues regarding the election of the Speaker’s panel that had developed over recent weeks and was designed to ensure there was no political advantage, whoever held onto those positions. And it was quite clear that the Solicitor-General’s advice indicated that there was no constitutional impediment to that occurring, just a political impediment once the opposition realised that they were not going to be in a position to form the government.

I would like briefly to run through some of the aspects of practice to put on the record the government’s commitment, including a commitment to undertake all necessary consultations and processes to ensure these changes are implemented. The government is committed to the implementation, through agreement and practice, of: pairing arrangements—items 2 and 17 of the agreement; the proportionate allocation for non-aligned members of opportunities to speak or ask questions—items 4.6 and 5.3; the imposition of 10-minute time limits on ordinary ministerial statements—item 9.1; the use of extensive notes by members—item 4.9; and the allocation of additional time for consideration in detail—item 11.2.

In relation to committee restructuring, the government is also committed to the development of the role of the Liaison Committee of Chairs and Deputy Chairs—items 10.3 and 16.3. An external review of staffing in the House of Representatives committee office will be commissioned by the Department of the House of Representatives—item 16.2. Similarly, it is appropriate that members of the Standing Committee of Privileges and Members’ Interests work with their counterparts in the other place on the development of a draft code of conduct—item 19. The government is also committed to thereafter appointing an integrity commissioner—item 18.

Other matters will be given effect to by actions within government, in consultation as necessary, such as additional sitting weeks—item 15; electoral funding and truth in political advertising—item 22; and the establishment of a register of lobbyists. I note, though, that the additional sitting week issue has been brought through in spirit by the fact that this parliament has been resumed so quickly after the government being formed and that we will have five full sitting weeks in the latter part of 2010.

An external review of staffing levels in the Parliamentary Library, item 16.2, will be a matter for the President of the Senate, as well as for the Speaker. A review will be undertaken in conjunction with implementation of the government’s commitment to establish a parliamentary budget office, item 16.1. I reiterate the government’s commitment to the agreement with the Australian Greens that there be a dedicated time for debating and voting on private members’ bills and that the House of Representatives will debate private senators’ bills within six sitting days and then bring them to conclusion.

The government is also committed to facilitating votes on motions from Independents and minor-party members and ensuring that Independent and minor-party members receive a fixed and fair allocation of questions in each question time. I have spoken with the member for Melbourne and with Senator Bob Brown and I confirm our commitment to this. The government signed up to these reforms through the agreement. The government stands by that commitment.

I now turn to those items of the agreement which require standing order amendments. The first main area of reform is around the order of business of the House and the Main Committee, primarily to increase the time allocated to and prominence of private members’ business. Private members’ business, including committee and delegation reports, will be given priority on a Monday from 10 am to noon, commencing with the Petitions Committee report and statements for 10 minutes. A further period of committee and delegation business and private members’ business will be given priority in the chamber on a Monday from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm. The selection committee will give priority to members from regional and rural electorates to deal with their motions and private members’ bills in the chamber during this period.

The Main Committee will regularly meet on Mondays from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm, commencing with a 30-minute period of three-minute constituency statements, as provided by standing order 193, followed by committee and delegation reports and private members’ business being given priority.

These amendments mean that an additional 6½ hours will be dedicated to private members’ business, bringing the total time allocated to nine hours. Four of these nine hours will occur in the main chamber. This is almost a quadrupling of time allocated to private members’ business and, in addition, votes on private members’ bills and motions will be held during government time. Further, members will be allocated 10 minutes—up from five minutes—when first presenting their bill to the House during private members’ business. A selection committee, chaired by the Speaker, will be established to determine the priorities and times for items of private members’ business and the times for individual speakers. This is one of the issues which have been dealt with by the draft standing orders being provided to the opposition and the crossbenchers. As a result of that, we have changed the provisions so that there will be an additional non-government member from the opposition, an additional government member and an additional member of the cross benches, so that two representatives from the cross benches will participate formally in the selection committee.

The Selection of Bills Committee, historically operated in the last parliament by the Chief Government Whip, Roger Price, and Chief Opposition Whip, Alex Somlyay, worked by consensus. I am sure that the new selection committee will operate in just the same way. The committee will also recommend which items will be voted on. In consultation with the Leader of the House, these items may then be allocated government business time for the remaining stages and the votes.

There are also a number of other amendments that again increase opportunities for members to raise in the House issues of concern to their electorate. Ninety-second statements will now take place prior to question time from 1.45 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. If members do not take up the opportunities, the extent of that availability might be a matter for review for next year—that is something which I and the Manager of Opposition Business agree might occur. Given that it is in the agreement, we have agreed to move forward in that way. This will provide 30 members with an opportunity to make a 90-second statement in the House each week. It will triple the number of statements by providing members with 20 additional statements per week, all of which will now occur in the House main chamber rather than in the Main Committee.

The adjournment debate will also be extended to an hour on Mondays and Tuesdays. This extension of time will provide an additional 12 members with five-minute speaking opportunities each week, bringing the total number of speaking opportunities on the adjournment debate to 36.

The matters of public importance debate will be extended to one hour and 30 minutes, although that time does not all have to be filled. The government and the opposition have agreed that we will provide three speakers each on MPI debates. This change allows for members of the cross benches, should they wish to participate in MPI debates, to participate without restriction because the change in the standing orders provides 1½ hours. To ensure the MPI debate has greater prominence, it will now immediately follow question time.

Overall, these changes provide an additional four hours and 45 minutes in the House and three hours and 25 minutes in Main Committee dedicated solely to providing private members with speaking opportunities outside of government business time.

The second main area of reform is around question time. Question time is the public face of the parliament and is often the Australian community’s only perception of the workings of parliament. The adversarial nature of question time has thereby contributed to a perception that parliament is purely combative. The government is committed to ensuring that question time portrays a more balanced view of the workings of the parliament. These reforms will limit questions to 45 seconds, standing order 100(f), and answers to four minutes, standing order 104(c). A digital clock will be paused during points of order. Also standing order 104(b) will be amended so that a point of order on relevance can be taken only once with respect to each answer. Part (c) will also be amended to reflect the agreement that an answer must be directly relevant to the question. I also note that the government is committed to question time concluding no later than 3.30 pm. In the normal course of events, there will be around 20 questions each day over time.

The third main area of reform is around the committee system. The government is committed to ensuring the committee system is more effective, efficient and better resourced. The number of general purpose House standing committees will be reduced to nine. Membership will be reduced to seven in most cases and be reflective of the make-up of the House. The maximum number of supplementary members for each general purpose standing committee inquiry will be increased to four, with supplementary members having full participatory rights other than voting rights.

I mentioned earlier that there will be an external review of staffing levels within the Department of the House of Representatives committee office. The need for such a review was also recently recommended by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure and will determine the nature and level of secretariat support necessary for the ongoing inquiry work of committees to ensure that the system is supported by an adequate number of qualified staff.

These amendments also allow the chairpersons of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts and Audit and the Standing Committee on Regional Australia to be a non-government or non-aligned member. Standing order 39 will be amended to provide committee chairs with the opportunity to make short statements during private members’ business time informing the House of inquiries being undertaken by the committee.

The government is also committed to improving response times to committee reports. A resolution of continuing effect is a part of this package of reforms to ensure that within six months of a House or joint committee report being presented in the House a government response will be tabled. If no such response has been received within six months, a statement signed by the relevant minister must be tabled stating the reasons why the response could not be prepared in time. The minister, or minister representing the minister, must also make themselves available to appear before the relevant committee at the next reasonable opportunity to answer questions on that statement.

Finally, I highlight one of the reforms in this package that is not about the technical workings of the House but about ensuring the parliament is more respectful to the traditional owners of the land on which it meets. The election of the government in November 2007 and the subsequent opening of the 42nd Parliament in February 2008 for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth saw a traditional ‘Welcome to Country’ and smoking ceremony performed by Indigenous elders for the opening of the federal parliament.

The government apologised to the stolen generations. On 23 June 2010 the government introduced a historic reform with amendments to the standing orders to ensure the formalisation of the role and place of a traditional ‘Welcome to Country’ in the opening of a new parliament. We did that yesterday in the parliamentary forecourt.

If this package of reforms passes the House, tomorrow will bring another historic event. The day’s proceedings will commence with the Speaker making an acknowledgment of country. Standing order 38 will be amended to include that acknowledgement, which will occur prior to prayers.

I commend the motion to the House. I support these important reforms and thank the members who have participated in the process, particularly once again the member for Lyne for showing leadership on these issues.

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