Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Of course, I introduced interventions in the House of Representatives, so I believe in them firmly.

The library committee has been a very important part of the furniture of the parliament for a very long time, but the view has been formed by the officers of the building that the usefulness of the library committee is no longer such that it should be accorded priority as a committee of the parliament. The committees of the parliament, as outlined by the motion that I have moved, deal with the key issues that Australia expects us to be getting on with—agriculture, communications, economics et cetera. And there is, of course, the selection committee, the petitions committee and so on. So there is absolutely no purpose for the library committee to continue and, as a consequence, we are pruning the library committee from the list.

I have now spoken to the Manager of Opposition Business's amendment, and I obviously do not support it. I would encourage my members to continue to support the government's agenda in terms of the standing orders, and I hope that the crossbenchers now have an explanation for what the government is proposing.

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