Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

(1)

That standing orders 240 and 241 be amended to read: 240 Admission of visitors

(a)

A committee or a subcommittee may admit visitors when it is examining a witness or gathering information in other proceedings.

(b)

All visitors must leave if:

(i)

the Chair asks them to;

(ii)

the committee or subcommittee resolves that they leave; or

(iii)

the committee or subcommittee is deliberating or hearing witnesses in private.

(2)

That, unless otherwise ordered, the following amendments to the standing orders be adopted to operate for the remainder of 2006:

(A)

In standing order 1, Maximum speaking times, the section of the table headed Committee and delegation reports on Mondays be amended to read:

Committee and delegation reports on Mondays in the House Each Member in the Main Committee Each Member (standing orders 39, 40, 192(b))

10 mins maximum, as allotted by the Selection Committee 10 mins

(B)

In standing order 1, Maximum speaking times, after the section of the table headed Condolence motion, the following new section be inserted:

Dissent motion Whole debate                Mover                Seconder                Member next speaking                Any other Member (standing order 87)

30 mins 10 mins 5 mins 10 mins 5 mins

(C)

Standing order 39 be amended to read: 39  Presentation of reports

The following general rules apply to meetings of the Main Committee:

(a)

The Deputy Speaker must suspend proceedings in the Committee to enable Members to attend divisions in the House.

(b)

If a quorum is not present the Deputy Speaker must immediately suspend proceedings until a stated time, or adjourn the Committee.

(c)

If the House adjourns, the Deputy Speaker must interrupt the business before the Committee and immediately adjourn the Committee.

(d)

The Committee need not adjourn between items of business, nor during a suspension of the House.

(e)

The Committee shall stand adjourned at 6 pm, unless otherwise ordered, when the committee meets on Mondays in accordance with standing order 192(b), or on completion of all matters referred to it, or may be adjourned on motion moved without notice by any Member—

That the Committee do now adjourn.

(f)

No amendment may be moved to the question.(G)   Standing order 192 be amended to read: 192 Main Committee’s order of business

(G)

Standing order 192 be amended to read: 192 Main Committee’s order of business

(a)

If the Committee meets on a Wednesday or Thursday the normal order of business is set out in figure 4.

(b)

On sitting Mondays the Committee shall meet from 4 pm to 6 pm if required to consider orders of the day relating to committee and delegation reports in accordance with standing order 40 (resumption of debate on reports).

Figure 4 Main Committee order of business

The sitting times of the Main Committee are set by the Deputy Speaker and are subject to change. Additional sittings may be scheduled if required. Adjournment debates can occur on days other than Thursdays by agreement between the whips.

(H)

Standing order 193 be amended to read: 193 Members’ three minute statements

If the Main Committee meets before 10 am the first item of business shall be statements by Members. The Deputy Speaker may call a Member, including a Parliamentary Secretary but not a Minister, to make a statement for no longer than three minutes. The period for Members’ statements may continue for 30 minutes, irrespective of suspensions for divisions in the House.

This motion gives effect to recommendations of the Procedure Committee. There are five matters covered by the motion.

The motion amends the standing orders to deal with the presence of visitors and members who are not committee members in private meetings of committees of the House. The standing orders are amended to allow the Main Committee to sit on Monday afternoons to deal with committee and delegation reports. The standing orders are amended to ensure that the full 30 minutes is available for members’ statements in the Main Committee, notwithstanding divisions which might interrupt it. The standing orders are amended to provide more options for the Deputy Speaker to ensure order in the Main Committee and, finally, the standing orders are amended to provide for a maximum limit for dissent motions here in the House. As I said, they are all recommendations of the Procedure Committee. I commend the committee for its work, and I commend the motion to the House.

Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In relation to these proposals to amend the standing orders, can I indicate on behalf of the opposition our support for them. We thank the Leader of the House for bringing them very expeditiously forward. I note that the Chair of the House of Representatives Procedure Committee, the honourable member for McPherson, is in this place. I would like to acknowledge the good role that she and the members of the Procedure Committee play in trying to make sensible changes to our standing orders to better facilitate the business of the House and provide opportunities for members. I do not want to comment on every aspect of these changes, but I do want to indicate the opposition’s strong support for the change in relation to members of parliamentary committees or those who served on parliamentary delegations not only being able to table their reports in the House of a Monday but, at 4 pm, being able to debate these reports in a timely way.

I think that this change, together with one other, will as we go forward be seen as a turning point for members in the importance with which they consider the Main Committee. It is true to say that the Main Committee’s role has evolved. I know that the chair of the Procedure Committee and the committee members generally, together with Deputy Speaker Causley, are very keen to see the ongoing development of the Main Committee. In particular, I am pleased that we are preserving in the Main Committee three-minute statements—a relatively new addition to opportunities for private members—and Main Committee adjournments. When I say that we are preserving them, they are often interrupted by divisions. Therefore, once the division is completed a member who was speaking or was listed to speak loses that opportunity. That will no longer be the case.

I might put on the record that from the opposition’s point of view we understand that there is a quid pro quo for that. In other words, where the government has reduced time for its bills in the Main Committee, the opposition will facilitate an extension to allow the government to complete its business. The Chief Government Whip and I have a very good relationship. Often matters involving the Main Committee largely depend on agreements reached between the Chief Government Whip and me, and I put on the record the opposition’s commitment that government business will not be harmed or delayed by making this important change that will benefit members.

I will mention one other thing, and that is the maintenance of order. I have always had a bit of a reservation about that, because it is the nature of the Main Committee that it is informal. You can have interventions in the Main Committee that you cannot hear. The debates tend to be far more relaxed and interactive. That is an atmosphere and an approach that we need to preserve. It is true that the only weapon that the Deputy Speaker or members of the Speaker’s panel have in relation to disorder is of course the catastrophic one of adjourning the House. The Deputy Speaker may now suspend members for 15 minutes. It is our expectation on the opposition side that this will be used lightly and that anyone occupying the chair would feel very much pressed to the nth degree before this suspension in the Main Committee were invoked.

Can I place on record the fact that in the Main Committee there is a much more free-flowing debate. It would be a disappointment to the opposition if a member were suspended on the basis that, in speaking to a bill, a very narrow construction of the confines of that bill were taken. That was the incident that I understand led to the request for this. But, Mr Deputy Speaker, I do not want to quibble with you. The opposition supports all these measures introduced by the Leader of the House. We thank him and, in particular, I again acknowledge the role of the chair of the committee, the honourable member for McPherson; our deputy chair, the honourable member for Banks, Mr Melham; and the other committee members for their work.

Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the member for Chifley and the comments he has made today on these amendments to the standing orders. I would like to put on record some comments, as the Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure, with regard to the amendments that were introduced by the Leader of the House today. I think all members of the Standing Committee on Procedure have worked tirelessly to ensure in particular that members have more opportunities to speak. It is to that end that we put up a number of recommendations, and I am delighted that they have been accepted by the Leader of the House and will become sessional orders for the remainder of 2006.

The five matters that we have before us today are certainly important, but I will confine my remarks particularly to the delegation and committee reports and the opportunities for members to speak on these reports. I think most of us in this House agree that the opportunity for members to speak on these reports has been very small. The opportunity has not been there. It is usually the chairman and the deputy chairman of a committee who have the opportunity to speak on a report. Members put a lot of time into those reports, and I can remember listening to a debate prior to Christmas in the Main Committee on a report brought down regarding overseas adoption. The debate that ensued in the Main Committee certainly teased out a lot of the problems, a lot of the great recommendations that came from that report and the work that had been done by members of that committee.

So I think all of us in this House applaud this forward thinking and opening up of opportunities for members to speak on these reports. In my own view, these reports have been undervalued by the parliament. In fact, many of the recommendations that come through the reports end up in legislation. Members, though, in the past have not had the opportunity to speak on those reports, and I think all members in this House will value the time that they are going to have to be able to speak.

Protecting members’ three-minute statements from divisions in the House and ensuring that that time is given back to members is most important. At the moment, once a division is called that time is lost and members do not have an opportunity to get that time back on that day. I thank the Leader of the House for taking on board that recommendation of the Procedure Committee.

In summing up, I would like to thank all members of the Standing Committee on Procedure. As a group we have worked extremely well together. We have worked hard on bipartisan reports, but, more than that, the aim of the committee has always been for the benefit of members of this House to give them every opportunity to put forward their views and engage in interactive debate. I think we have been able to achieve that. During the last parliament the member for Chifley was the Deputy Chair of the Procedure Committee, and I welcome the member for Banks and his contribution in this parliament and appreciate how we have been able to work together. On behalf of everyone on the committee, I commend the Leader of the House and the government for moving forward on these recommendations.

Question agreed to.