Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That standing order nos. 1, 2, 8, 13, 39, 41, 54, 105, 122, 123, 131, 143, 190, 204, 205, 205a and 222 be amended, as follows:

1      Maximum speaking times

     The maximum time limits that apply to debates, speeches and statements are as follows.

2   Definitions

  The following meanings apply throughout these standing orders.

…

count out is the adjournment of the House because of the lack of a quorum of Members (currently 31 Members).

…

document means a paper or any record of information, and includes :

(i) anything on which there is writing;

(ii) anything on which there are marks, figures, symbols or perforations having a meaning for persons qualified to interpret them;

(iii) anything from which sounds, images or writings can be reproduced with or without the aid of anything else; or

(iv) a map, plan, drawing or photograph.

…

quorum of the House is at least one-fifth of the whole number of Members of the House (currently 31 Members).

8   First meeting for new session following prorogation other than for a new Parliament

On the first meeting of a second or subsequent session of Parliament, instead of the procedure set down in standing order 4, the procedure shall be as follows:

(a)    Members shall assemble in the House at the time appointed by the Governor-General in the Proclamation calling Parliament together.

(b) The Clerk shall read the Proclamation to Members.

(c) The Speaker shall make an acknowledgement of country and read Prayers.

(d) Members shall wait for a message from the Governor-General stating the time when he or she will declare the causes for the calling together of Parliament.

(e) Subsequent procedure shall follow standing orders 5-7.

13      When Deputy Speaker and Second Deputy Speaker elected

(a) The Deputy Speaker and Second Deputy Speaker shall be elected at the beginning of each Parliament, or at any time the respective office becomes vacant. Whenever the two offices are vacant at the same time, elections for both offices shall be conducted together.

(b) The Speaker shall conduct the elections under standing order 14, and may not vote in an ordinary ballot.

(c) If a government Member is elected as Deputy Speaker, only a non-government Member may be elected as Second Deputy Speaker. If a non-government Member is elected as Deputy Speaker, only a government Member may be elected as Second Deputy Speaker.

(d) A Member shall propose the nomination of a Member to the vacant office by moving, without notice, that such Member 'be elected Deputy Speaker (or Second Deputy Speaker)'.

39      Announcements concerning inquiries and presentation of reports

(a) The Chair and/or deputy Chair of a committee may make a statement to inform the House of matters relating to an inquiry during the periods for committee and delegation business on Mondays (standing order 34). The Selection Committee shall recommend time limits for such statements.

(b) Members may present reports of committees or delegations:

(i) as determined by the Selection Committee, during the periods for committee and delegation business on Mondays in the House and Federation Chamber (standing orders 34 and 192); or

(ii) in the House at any time when other business is not before the House.

(c) Members may make statements in relation to these reports:

(i) during the periods for committee and delegation business on Mondays in the House and Federation Chamber (standing orders 34 and 192); the Selection Committee shall determine time limits for statements, of not more than 10 minutes for each Member; or

(ii) in the House at any other time, by leave.

(d) The Member presenting a report may move without notice, a specific motion in relation to the report. Debate on the question shall be adjourned to a future day and the resumption of the debate may be referred to the Federation Chamber.

(e) Unless otherwise ordered, a committee report presented in accordance with this standing order shall be made a Parliamentary Paper.

41      (a) In the periods set for committee and delegation business and private Members' business under standing orders 34 and 192, private Members' notices and orders of the day shall be considered in the order shown on the Notice Paper. When the time set by standing orders 34 or 192 or determined by the Selection Committee ends, the Speaker shall interrupt proceedings and the matter shall be listed on the Notice Paper for the next sitting.

Private Members ' bills—priority

(b) The Selection Committee, in making determinations:

(i) shall give priority to private Members' notices of intention to present bills over other notices and orders of the day; and

(ii) shall set the order in which the bills are to be presented.

First and second reading

(c) Subject to this standing order, the first and second reading shall proceed in accordance with standing orders 141 and 142. The Member who has presented the bill may speak to the second reading for no longer than 10 minutes at the time of presentation and 5 minutes, in continuation, on resumption of the debate (if required by the mover). The Selection Committee may determine times for consideration of the remainder of the second reading debate.

Priority following second reading

(d) If the motion for the second reading is agreed to by the House, further consideration of the bill shall be accorded priority over other private Members' business and the Selection Committee may determine times for consideration of the remaining stages.

Alternation of notices

(e) Subject to paragraph (b)(i), the Selection Committee shall provide for the consideration of private Members' notices to alternate between those of government and non-government Members.

Participation of Speaker and Deputy Speaker

(f) The Speaker and Deputy Speaker may participate in private Members' business.

54      Bells at start of meeting of the House

At each sitting the bells shall be rung for five minutes before the appointed meeting time, calling Members to the meeting. The Speaker shall take the Chair and, if a quorum of 31 Members is present, commence the meeting as provided by standing order 38 (acknowledgement of country and prayers). If a quorum is not present standing order 57(count out) shall apply.

105      Replies to written questions

(a) A Minister's written reply to a question must be delivered to the Clerk. The Clerk shall provide a copy of the reply to the Member who asked the question, and the question and reply shall be published.

(b) If a reply has not been received 60 days after a question first appeared on the Notice Paper, the Member who asked the question may, at the conclusion of Question Time, ask the Speaker to write to the Minister concerned, seeking reasons for the delay in answering.

122      Question put on proposed amendments

(a) The Speaker shall put the question on a proposed amendment—

That the amendment be agreed to.

123      Restrictions on amendments to be moved

(a) A proposed amendment must not be inconsistent with a previous decision on the question.

(b) An amendment may not be moved to an earlier part of the question:

(i) after a later part has been amended, or

(ii) after an amendment to a later part has been proposed and the proposal has not, by leave, been withdrawn.

(c) Each proposed amendment shall be disposed of before another amendment to the original question can be moved.

131      Successive divisions

(a) If a division is called following a division and there is no intervening debate, the Speaker may appoint tellers immediately and order the bells to be rung for one minute.

(b) If there is a successive division, Members who wish to vote in the same way as in the previous division must remain seated until the result of the division is announced. The tellers may record each Member's vote as being the same as it was in the previous division unless a Member reports to them. A Member must report to the tellers if he or she:

(i) wishes to vote differently to his or her vote in the previous division; or

(ii) voted in the previous division and does not wish to vote in the current division; or

(iii) did not vote in the previous division and wishes to vote in the current division.

(c) The vote shall be counted as in standing order 130 if:

(i) in the Speaker's opinion most Members wish to vote differently to their votes in the previous division; or

(ii) any confusion or error occurs in the count by the tellers.

143      Bill referred to Federation Chamber or committee

After the first reading but before the question on the motion for the second reading is put:

(a) a motion may be moved without notice to refer a bill to the Federation Chamber for further consideration as provided by standing order 183; or

(b) a motion may be moved without notice or a determination may be made by the Selection Committee as provided by standing order 222 to refer a bill to a committee for an advisory report. The motion or determination may specify a date by which the committee is to report to the House. After an advisory report has been presented to the House, the bill may then be referred to the Federation Chamber under paragraph (a).

(c) If, having considered a bill referred to it for an advisory report, a committee finds no issues requiring a formal report, the Chair or deputy Chair may make a statement to the House to that effect. The statement, with the presentation of the relevant minutes of proceedings, discharges the committee's obligation to report on the bill.

190      General rules for suspensions and adjournments of the Federation Chamber

The following general rules apply to meetings of the Federation Chamber:

(a) The Deputy Speaker must suspend proceedings in the Federation Chamber to enable Members to attend divisions in the House.

(b) If a quorum is not present the Deputy Speaker must immediately suspend proceedings until a stated time, or adjourn the Federation Chamber.

(c) If, at the time of the adjournment of the House, the Federation Chamber has not been adjourned, the Federation Chamber stands automatically adjourned, with the Deputy Speaker interrupting business before the Federation Chamber if it is meeting.

(d) The Federation Chamber need not adjourn between items of business, nor during a suspension of the House.

(e)    The Federation Chamber shall stand adjourned on completion of all matters referred to it, or may be adjourned on motion moved without notice by any Member—

     That the Federation Chamber do now adjourn.

(f) No amendment may be moved to the question.

204      Rules for the form and content of petitions

(a) A petition must:

(i) be addressed to the House of Representatives;

(ii) refer to a matter on which the House has the power to act;

(iii) state the reasons for petitioning the House; and

(iv) contain a request for action by the House.

(b) The terms of the petition must not contain any alterations and must not exceed 250 words. The terms must be placed at the top of the first page of the petition and the request of the petition must be at the top of every other page. The terms of an e-petition must be available through the House website.

(c) The terms of the petition must not be illegal or promote illegal acts. The language used must be moderate.

(d) An e-petition must be in English. A paper petition must be in English or be accompanied by a translation certified to be correct. The person certifying the translation must place his or her name and address on the translation.

(e) No letters, affidavits or other documents should be attached to the petition. Any such attachments will be removed before presentation to the House.

(f) A petition must not include any Universal Resource Locators (URLs) or reference to specific web links.

(g) A petition from a corporation must be made under its common seal. Otherwise it will be received as the petition of the individuals who signed it.

205      Rules for signatures—paper petitions

(a) Every petition must contain the signature and full name and address of a principal petitioner on the first page of the petition. The principal petitioner must be either a resident or citizen of Australia.

(b) All the signatures on a paper petition must meet the following requirements:

(i) Each signatory to a petition must confirm they are either a resident or citizen of Australia.

(ii) Each signature must be made by the person signing in his or her own handwriting. Only a petitioner incapable of signing may ask another person to sign on his or her behalf.

(iii) Signatures must not be copied, pasted or transferred on to the petition or placed on a blank page on the reverse of a sheet containing the terms of the petition.

(c) A Member must not be a principal petitioner or signatory to a paper petition.

(d) Any signatures that do not comply with (b) or (c) above will be excluded from the petition presented to the House without invalidating the petition.

205a   Rules for e-petitions

(a) A principal petitioner for an e-petition must provide the petitioner's full name and address. The principal petitioner must be either a resident or citizen of Australia.

(b) The posted period for an e-petition is to be four weeks from the date of publication on the House website.

(c) Once published on the House website the terms of an e-petition cannot be altered.

(d) Once the posted period for an e-petition has elapsed, the petition shall be presented to the House in accordance with standing order 207.

(e) Each signatory to an e-petition must confirm they are either a resident or citizen of Australia.

(f) Names must not be copied, pasted or transferred on to an e-petition.

(g) A Member must not be a principal petitioner or signatory to an e-petition.

(h)    The name of any signatory that does not comply with (e), (f) or (g) above will be excluded from the petition presented to the House without invalidating the petition.

222      Selection Committee

(a) A Selection Committee shall be appointed to:

(i) arrange the timetable and order of committee and delegation business and private Members' business for each sitting Monday in accordance with standing orders 39 to 41;

(ii) select private Members' notices and other items of private Members' and committee and delegation business for referral to the Federation Chamber, or for return to the House; and

(iii) select bills that the committee regards as controversial or as requiring further consultation or debate for referral to the relevant standing or joint committee in accordance with standing order 143.

(b) The committee shall consist of 12 members: the Speaker, or in the absence of the Speaker the Deputy Speaker, the Chief Government Whip or his or her nominee, the Chief Opposition Whip or his or her nominee, five government Members, three opposition Members and one non-aligned Member. The Chief Nationals Whip shall be a member of the committee. The Speaker shall be the Chair of the committee. A quorum shall be three members of the committee.

(c) For committee and delegation business and private Members' business, the committee may determine the order of consideration of the matters, and the times allotted for debate on each item and for each Member speaking.

(d) In relation to committee and delegation business and private Members' business the committee must report its determinations to the House in time for its decisions to be published on the Notice Paper of the sitting Thursday before the Monday being considered. In relation to bills the committee must report its determinations as soon as practical in respect of each bill or each group of bills.

(e) Reports of the committee under paragraph (d) shall be treated as having been adopted when they are presented. Reports shall be published in Hansard.

(f) A referral by determination of the Selection Committee pursuant to paragraph (a)(ii) or (a)(iii), once the determination has been reported to the House, is deemed to be a referral by the House.

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

I want to thank the Leader of the House for the discussion that's gone on in the lead-up to these standing order changes. They've been agreed. There are some that go to the direct, smooth running of the House and some of them which deal with the change of the number of members from 150 to 151 and some consequential changes there. There's nothing controversial, but the opposition is grateful for the consultation that's happened in the lead-up to this.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Watson for the discussions that we've had. As he notes, the changes are largely procedural. They largely emanate from an interim and final committee report on the issue—for instance, changing quorum to 31, amongst other matters—and no doubt the standing orders will be a matter for ongoing discussion between the member for Watson and me over the course of this parliament.

Question agreed to.