Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That standing orders 1, 34 (figure 2), 43, and 192 (figure 4) be amended to read as follows:

1 Maximum speaking times (amendments to existing subject, as follows)

Figure 2. House order of business

43 Members ' statements

(a) In the House at 1.30 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the Speaker shall interrupt business and call on statements by Members. The period allowed for these statements may extend until 2 pm.

(b) In the Federation Chamber at 4 pm on Mondays, the Deputy Speaker shall interrupt business and call on statements by Members. The period allowed for these statements may extend until 4.45 pm.

(c) During these periods, when called on by the Chair, a Member, but not a Minister (or Parliamentary Secretary*), may make a statement for no longer than 90 seconds.

*Including Assistant Ministers who are Parliamentary Secretaries

Figure 4. Federation Chamber order of business

The meeting times of the Federation Chamber are fixed by the Deputy Speaker and are subject to change. Times shown for the start and finish of items of business are approximate.

Adjournment debates can occur on days other than Thursdays by agreement between the Whips.

Members will, I think, be very pleased with this change to the standing orders. They would be very familiar with the fact that the provision for 90-second statements has been limited to a quarter of an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 1.45 pm to 2 pm. It is part of the day's proceedings which is very popular with backbenchers, particularly, to raise local constituency issues and matters that would not otherwise fit into the ordinary debate on legislation and so on. So the government has determined, and has negotiated with the opposition in good faith, that we will extend that debate to Tuesdays, and on all four days of sittings it will be 30 minutes, from 1.30 pm to 2 pm each day.

I would like to particularly note that the Tasmanian Liberal members, the members for Braddon, Lyons and Bass, and the member for Hughes and even the member for Maranoa—who is still, after 20-something years here, coming up with new and innovative ideas, which is a good thing—have all been lobbying me over the last few months about extending the 90-second debate. The government is moving to do that. That will begin today. We are also extending it into the Federation Chamber—a whole 45 minutes on Mondays in the Federation Chamber. This will allow 80 statements a week to be made by members in the House and 30 in the Federation Chamber. I think it will be very popular, and I look forward to the contributions of my colleagues over the coming months.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Some alarm has gone around for some people who had not read the Notice Paper in full, given that there are two proposed amendments on the Notice Paper from the Leader of the House. I should assure my colleagues that, of the two notices that the Leader of the House has on the Notice Paper, the one that he has now moved is not the atrocity. What has been described as the nuclear option is not the one that has been chosen today.

The Leader of the House is correct in saying that there has been some consultation in advance of this being put to the House. The opposition also welcomes the fact that the government, in choosing to take a full hour off government business, has decided that there is enough time for government business and therefore, I presume, will not be further using the gag on any of the legislation to come forward. We are happy to support this change.

Question agreed to.