Geoff Lyons (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Procedure, I present the committee's report entitled Monitoring and review of procedural changes implemented in the 43rd Parliament: 4th report, together with the minutes of proceedings.

This is the fourth in a series of reports the Procedure Committee has tabled for its ongoing review into the procedural changes implemented in the 43rd Parliament. The previous reports have documented the reforms and their initial implementation and considered several aspects of the reforms in detail.

This report considers whether or not the original intention of the reforms to develop a more active and participatory House for all members has been realised. It looks in detail at the implementation process and the various adaptations that have been made and revisits some of the issues previously identified by the committee.

The Agreement for a Better Parliament: Parliamentary Reform was the catalyst for these procedural changes. The aim of the agreement was to increase the opportunities for participation by all members of parliament and we feel this has occurred. There has been a substantial increase in both private members' bills and motions introduced into the House. We are particularly pleased to see the number of private members' bills being presented and debated. This has allowed backbenchers, regardless of their political affiliation, to demonstrate their effectiveness as representatives of the people.

Among other things, the agreement put forward proposals to address the ongoing discontent with the conduct of question time. However, despite efforts by successive Speakers, we do not feel that the reforms have significantly improved question time. It is still competitive and argumentative. It does not provide a very good reflection of the parliament to the Australian public. Questions are negative and repetitive to the point of being boring, and answers are not necessarily directly relevant.

Over two years after the implementation of the procedural reforms, one of our major concerns remains the detrimental effect of the extended sitting hours on the health and wellbeing of members, their staff and the parliamentary staff. Although it may be politically unpopular to raise this issue, we cannot afford to ignore it and its consequences. Accordingly, we have reiterated our previous recommendation that changes be made in this area.

Ultimately, the committee would like to see the procedural changes that were initiated in the 43rd Parliament lead to meaningful and sustainable change to the way parliament works. In this regard, we acknowledge that the government has noted the recommendations in our previous reports and supports two of them. However, for effective long-term parliamentary reform, further action will be required to embed these changes. More importantly, each of us as members of parliament will need to commit to ongoing cultural change.

In gathering evidence for this inquiry we have held discussions with a range of colleagues including the current Speaker, her two predecessors, party whips, members and the Clerk. I thank all of them for their time and the contribution they have made to our deliberations. I also thank my colleagues on the Procedure Committee for their work on this inquiry and I particularly thank the secretariat for their support with this report. I commend the report to the House.

In accordance with standing order 39(f) the report was made a parliamentary paper.