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

Mr Speaker, you and I have been in this chamber for a long time. I want to report to all honourable members so that they may know something that I took great exception to yesterday. I think it is one of the lowest acts I have ever seen from an opposition. Yesterday when members were about to make their first speeches the opposition called a quorum. Indeed, had I not ensured there was a quorum available subsequently through the day, there would have been a series of quorums called. I do not understand why the opposition would do this. I think they have really dug to the depths of parliamentary lows. I must confess that I have at times criticised the former Leader of the House, but I have never seen anything as low as that which was done yesterday. We have a fine tradition of respecting all members when they make a first speech, irrespective of what party they come from or even if they do not come from a party. In my opinion, it was absolutely traduced yesterday by the calling of a quorum and, indeed, the possibility of calling further quorums that was thwarted by the government.

I also want to speak about Friday sittings and some of the contributions that were made to the debate about Fridays by opposition members. It was interesting that so many of them said that there would not be a starting quorum and that the proposed changes to the standing orders involve not having a starting quorum. Of course, this is totally incorrect. I found it amusing, even when the former Attorney-General was calling for the tabling of legal opinions, as over 11½ years this parliament has been drowned by successive coalition Attorneys-General tabling legal opinions.

This again raises the issue of discipline. That was the member for Cowper’s contribution—that is, even though Deputy Speakers have had few opportunities in the Main Committee to discipline members and only recently were given the sin-bin power, in fact Deputy Speakers have disciplined members in the Main Committee and those members have subsequently been named and dealt with the next day in the House. Exactly the same would apply in relation to Fridays. Then again, there was the concoction that somehow deferring the calling of a division or quorum was something new to this chamber. At 6.30 pm on Mondays and Tuesdays any member, under the standing orders, if it is appropriate, can call for a division. There is nothing in the standing orders that would prevent a division being called on those days. There is nothing in the standing orders that would prevent a quorum being called between 6.30 and eight o’clock. That is what the standing orders are, and on Friday it is exactly the same.

I have never in this parliament seen a member refuse to leave the chamber, either under the sin-bin rule or when they have been named. I have never seen a member of parliament refuse a request by the Serjeant-at-Arms to leave the chamber. I can think of nothing more highly disorderly than that. It is true that, when members have been sin-binned, some of your predecessors have made a comment, perhaps a derogatory comment, that the Speaker and Deputy Speakers have taken exception to and they have subsequently not only sin-binned them but also named them. All these things are available to Presiding Officers on a Friday.

But, above all, Friday is not about government business; it is about backbenchers, who have been working their electorates, voicing the concerns of their constituents by way of 90-second statements, the grievance debate and even notices of motion. We are going to see that on Fridays. You cannot just listen to people in your electorate and be like a sponge and do nothing; you also have a responsibility to speak out on their behalf in this parliament. Friday provides more opportunities for backbenchers, not fewer opportunities. (Time expired)