Gary Nairn (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Leader of the House I move:

(1)  That standing order 11, up to and including paragraph (h), be amended to read:

       11   Election procedures

       When electing a Member to fill a vacant office the routine shall be as follows:

             Nominees proposed

       (a)   The Chair shall invite nominations for the vacant office.

       (b)  A Member shall propose the nomination of a Member to the vacant office by moving, without notice, that such Member ‘do take the Chair of this House as Speaker’. The Member nominated must be present and the motion must be seconded. The mover and seconder may speak in support of their nominated candidate for no more than 5 minutes each.

       (c)   The nominated Member shall inform the House whether he or she accepts the nomination.

       (d)  The Chair shall ask:

               Is there any further proposal?

       and shall ask this again after any further proposal and acceptance.

           (e)      If no further proposal is made the Chair shall state:

               The time for proposals has expired

       No further nominations may be made.

               If only one nominee—nominee elected

           (f)    If a nominee is unopposed, the Chair, without question put, shall declare the Member, who has been proposed and seconded, to have been elected to the vacant office.

              If two or more nominees—debate then ballot

       (g)  If there are two or more nominees, when the time for proposals has expired, Members who have not yet spoken as mover or seconder may speak on the election, however:

                 (i)    debate must be relevant to the election; and

                (ii)    no Member may speak for more than five minutes,

       (h)  At any time during debate, and whether any Member is addressing the Chair or not, a Minister may move without notice—

               That the ballot be taken now.

       The question shall be put immediately and resolved without amendment or debate. If the votes are equal the question shall be negatived, and debate may continue. If the question is carried, or when debate ends, the House shall proceed to a ballot.

(2)   That standing orders 141 and 142 be amended to read:

       141 First reading and explanatory memorandum

       (a)   When a bill is presented to the House, or a Senate bill is first received, the bill shall be read a first time without a question being put. A Member presenting a bill during private Members’ business may speak to the bill, before it is read a first time, for no longer than 5 minutes.

       (b)  For any bill presented by a Minister, except an Appropriation or Supply Bill, the Minister must present a signed explanatory memorandum. The explanatory memorandum must include an explanation of the reasons for the bill.

       142 Second reading

       (a)   If copies of the bill are available to Members, the Member presenting the bill may move immediately after the first reading, or at a later hour—

               That this bill be now read a second time.

       At the conclusion of the Member's speech the debate on the question must then be adjourned to a future sitting.

       After the first reading of a bill presented during private Members’ business, the motion for the second reading shall be set down on the Notice Paper for the next sitting.

       (b)  If copies of the bill are not available, a future sitting shall be appointed for the second reading and copies of the bill must then be available to Members.

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

I do not think the alacrity with which the Leader of the House has responded to the report tabled this week should go unremarked. The proposed changes, I must say, are not of great moment; nevertheless, they are worth while. I wished that the leader responded to all reports with such alacrity. For example, I notice that the Special Minister of State, a former distinguished chairman of the Procedure Committee, himself brought down a report, which I totally supported, entitled Balancing tradition and progress: procedures for the opening of parliament. That only took three years and 10 months to be rejected.

Mr Deputy Speaker Jenkins, I know your interest in the standing orders. Changed arrangements that were initiated by a distinguished predecessor in the chair—Speaker Andrew—have yet to be responded to even though the committee reported back in 2003.

I have always given the member for Mackellar credit for her enthusiasm about House estimates committees. Again, the report entitled House estimates: consideration of the annual estimates by the House of Representatives was brought down in October 2003, and we still do not have a response.

The first of these two changes permits a debate about the election of a Speaker by the nominators of the Speaker in the circumstances where there is no ballot or contest. We have placed the Clerk of the House in the unenviable position of needing to enforce the standing orders and thus members who nominated, for example our current Speaker, and the person who seconded the nomination, were not, according to the standing orders, able to speak. Mr Deputy Speaker, I know that you would be pleased, as I am, that the standing orders were not so rigidly enforced that they were not able to make a contribution. Nevertheless, that aspect has been tidied up.

The other matter refers to the presentation of explanatory memoranda simultaneously with the beginning of a second reading speech. It is a relatively small matter but one, again, that needed to be tidied up.

The reports of the Procedure Committee are unanimous reports reflecting the efforts of the coalition members and the opposition members on that committee. To the Special Minister of State moving these changes to the standing orders I indicate on behalf of the opposition that we too will be supporting these changes.

Question agreed to.