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

I want to talk about a couple of parliamentary things today. As this term of parliament ends, I do want to express my regret that what was I think a significant reform of parliamentary business did not proceed as I had expected. I am talking about private members’ Fridays, the idea that we should devote a parliamentary sitting day to private members. You could not have parliamentary secretaries or ministers but you could have shadow ministers, shadow parliamentary secretaries and ordinary members and if the subject matter were good enough—say there was an interesting report being tabled or there was a particular private member’s notice of motion being debated—it would have clear air in terms of attracting media interest.

I cannot say the proposals of the Rudd government were unique, because New South Wales has had private members’ Fridays for many years. It is a great irony that the then Leader of the Opposition and the Manager of Opposition Business both came from the sovereign state of New South Wales, where this has been the practice. In retrospect, I could say that it was a function of a government going into opposition and the one thing rallying it was to object to this particular initiative. As the former Chair of the Procedure Committee in the Main Committee chamber, I say perhaps it might have been better digested through the Procedure Committee. But I must confess I did not see the opposition to it coming, and it certainly blindsided me and others. I think the current arrangements for private members’ business are abominable and I do hope that in the new parliament we will go to something that is much better. There is a proposal from the Procedure Committee for that to happen, which will be tabled shortly. I predict that it will be a long time before we see another proposal for a day exclusively devoted to private members’ business—and more is the pity because I think this sells short the activities, interests and passions of members on both sides of parliament.

The other thing that I want to comment on is the abolition of the selection committee. Previously, to select private members’ business we had a selection committee chaired by the Deputy Speaker with whips on both sides nominated to it and also some backbench members. The reality of the way it operated, and I compliment Deputy Speaker Ian Causley on this, was very businesslike. He would ask the Chief Government Whip, Mr Bartlett, what he wanted to select and then he would ask me, as the Chief Opposition Whip, what I wanted to select and that was it. It was all over—wham, bam and thank you, ma’am—in about one minute, but the coffee and biscuits were nice and there were a lot of minutes taken and papers produced and distributed. That has been replaced by a whips meeting, and I can say that the whips do attend that meeting and there is not the formality of paper preparation or minute taking. I am pleased to say that an Independent member—Rob Oakeshott, the honourable member for Lyne—attends, which never occurred with the old selection committee, and the informality of the meeting allows us to sometimes discuss other matters.

They say that, because it is a whips meeting, it must be political. I can say to people that I have never prevented anyone saying anything in this parliament. It is true that I have occasionally selected a more moderate and balanced motion about a particular matter rather than an extreme motion. I am not aware of my counterparts either censuring or prohibiting any of their members from raising issues. So I think the system has worked well. I think the Independents do have a right to have their voices heard on these matters and, under these arrangements, they currently are being heard. Sometimes they are able to raise other difficulties they may have, which are addressed by both the Chief Opposition Whip and me. I would commend the new arrangements and I suspect they will go on into the future.