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

We have more regional seats than the Liberal Party. Not once did we take this opportunistic view. Indeed, in 2008, when the opposition last tried this, the Manager of Opposition Business, Mr Hockey, interjected—it is in the Hansard of September 2008—‘What we want is the government to adopt this position’. He gave up again in that debate that private members’ bills can be moved in this fashion.

So we have a situation in which the High Court of Australia has considered some of these matters in the Pape case. We have the Attorney-General, the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, the clerks of the House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Constitution, House of Representatives Practice, and standing orders, but those opposite say: ‘Don’t you worry about that. Let’s just consider this and pass it even though, because there is no message attached, it will not make any difference to anybody.’ Let me be very clear: there is no message from the Governor-General attached to appropriate money, so it does not make any difference, but they will engage in this as a stunt. They understood and accepted last December, when they moved a private members’ motion to put the views that members of the House had, as is appropriate.

We facilitated in this new parliament the voting on private members’ motions and private members’ bills. Private members’ motions are completely legitimate for members of the House of Representatives to express their views with. They have done that, and the government has taken on board the views of many members with the announcement that we have made today. I thank those members, particularly all of the members on the crossbenches, who have engaged in a constructive fashion regardless of what way they vote on this particular issue. They have engaged constructively and understood the balance that needs to be made between political objectives to achieve an outcome and behaving in a fashion that respects the role of this House of Representatives.

We have a great honour and a privilege in sitting in this chamber. It is an honour and a privilege that we cannot use simply for opportunistic purposes. It is an honour and a privilege in which we have to respect the law, the Australian Constitution, the House of Representatives, the standing orders and, in this case with my resolution, Mr Speaker, your determination on this matter. It is correct. It is in line with all of the history that has been conducted in this House without exception. That is why I commend the motion that I have moved to the House and support your determination on this matter.

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