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

I will not delay the House at great length as there is agreement between the government and the opposition on this matter. I note that the Leader of the House seemed to spend a great deal of time talking about a lot of subjects that are not matters before the House today. I will not do that. What is before the House is the changes to standing orders with respect to the changing of the name of the Main Committee to the Federation Chamber, which the opposition supports. I have always believed that Main Committee was a poor name for the second chamber. In fact, when I was the chairman of the Procedure Committee I recommended that the name be changed from Main Committee to Second Chamber. But we are comfortable with Federation Chamber, because obviously Main Committee is a confusing name for everyone concerned. Also, I think it detracts from the importance of that chamber and the role it plays. So we support that change.

Another one of the changes we are making to the standing orders today—which will apply from today, I understand—is a change in the time limits for questions and answers. I believe that question time can sometimes become tedious and bogged down, particularly with respect to the answers given by the government to the dorothy dixers they ask themselves. I think reducing the time limit from four minutes to three minutes will mean that the clock ticks over faster. It is more efficient for question time. I think we will get more information as a consequence of this change to the time limits. In fact, three minutes was the time limit we suggested in the negotiations for a better parliament with the crossbenchers and the government. It now seems like only yesterday but it was in fact 15 months ago.

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