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

Mr Speaker, just as was the case last time when we had an unusual sitting, I'll move the motion in full so that everyone's apprised of all the terms. I will move a motion to suspend standing orders and advise the House that, pursuant to standing order 47(c)(ii), the Manager of Opposition Business and I have agreed that an absolute majority is not required. I thereby move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the following from occurring in relation to business for today:

(1) the Federation Chamber not to meet today;

(2) immediately following the resolution of this motion the Prime Minister to make a ministerial statement, with the Leader of the Opposition to respond;

(3) subsequent business for this sitting to be restricted to bills relating to the further economic response to the coronavirus crisis, Question Time, and any other business agreed between a Minister and the Manager of Opposition Business;

(4) presentation and consideration of bills relating to the further economic response to the coronavirus crisis to be given priority over all other business until 2pm;

(5) the Speaker to report any Messages from the Governor-General required by standing order 180(b), a Minister to present the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Bill, the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus (Measures No. 2) Bill, Appropriation Bill (No. 5) 2019-2020 and Appropriation Bill (No. 6) 2019-2020 together and the first reading of each bill to be given;

(6) the minister to move one motion that the bills be read a second time, and make a second reading speech;

(7) at the conclusion of the second reading speech a cognate debate to ensue until 2pm;

(8) immediately after Question Time and the presentation of any documents by the Speaker, the immediate question, or questions, necessary to complete the second reading of the bills to be put;

(9) if the second reading of the bills is agreed to and any Messages from the Governor-General announced, the bills then to be taken as a whole during consideration in detail, if required, for one hour, with any Government amendments to the bills that have been circulated to be treated as if they have been moved together, any Opposition amendments which have been circulated to be treated as if they had been moved together, and any amendments circulated by non-aligned Members to be treated as if they had been moved together by the Member proposing them, with:

(a) one question to be put on all the Government amendments;

(b) one question then to be put on any amendments which have been circulated by Opposition Members;

(c) single questions then to be put on amendments circulated by each non-aligned Member; and

(d) any further questions necessary to complete the remaining stages of the bills to be put without delay;

(10) if consideration in detail is not required, the question on the third reading of the bills to be put immediately after the second readings of the bills and the announcement of any Messages from the Governor-General;

(11) following the third readings of the bills, any other business agreed by a Minister and the Manager of Opposition Business to ensue, the Speaker then to suspend the House until the ringing of the bells;

(12) when the sitting resumes any further business relating to the bills and any other business agreed by a Minister and the Manager of Opposition Business to ensue, and the Speaker then to adjourn the House until a date and hour to be fixed by the Speaker; and

(13) any variation to this arrangement to be made only by a motion moved by a Minister with leave granted by the Manager of Opposition Business.

I personally thank the Manager of Opposition Business for his cooperation in devising that motion.

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

I thank the Leader of the House. The opposition will be supporting the suspension in its form without amendment. There are a number of issues that we have been pursuing publicly on which we don't have the agreement of the government. It remains our position that the parliament should be meeting with a different calendar to where we now are, where we are pretending that we won't be required until August. Obviously, we're not going to go through the process of moving an amendment to that or anything like that now, but our position is known—it is stated—and that remains the case.

I should also point out that while the parliament should be meeting, it is also the case that, in the absence of the parliament, and even if the parliament were meeting, oversight during this period is really important. There will be a Senate inquiry with a committee established to be able to perform a whole lot of that oversight. This parliament has seen for a long time that, while there are joint committees and Reps committees, the truth is the committee system that has been the most thorough in supervising the work of government has been Senate select committees; that is simply a given. A reason for that, in part, is that the chairs are not from the government and that does make a difference in the role that they play.

That's the reason why we have sought for there to be a Senate select committee, rather than there being a House of Representatives committee or a joint committee. I put that down because I appreciate that some members of the crossbench have raised both with me personally and with the Leader of the House—that they wanted a House of Representatives inquiry or a joint committee to be the way forward. Our view has been that history has shown that a Senate select committee is the strongest way to provide oversight, in the absence of the House and Senate sitting themselves. That's the reason why we've pursued that particular approach. For the reasons I stated at the beginning, we won't be supporting amendments to the motion that's been moved and negotiated cooperatively with the Leader of the House.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just because this was raised by the Manager of Opposition Business, we won't be moving amendments to this nation. But the question of the proper oversight of this parliament and of the government, given that parliamentary sittings have been cancelled, is a very, very important one. A number of members of the crossbench raised with the government and the opposition that they need to have a joint committee with a non-government chair. A big part of the reason for that is that, given the House is not sitting, there will not be a forum between now and August when House based government ministers will be accountable or responsive to other members of parliament. In other words, there is going to be no question time and there is going to be no capacity to debate motions. Of course, ministers based in the House can and often do refuse to appear before Senate committees. Usually when Senate committees are sitting, that is happening whilst the House is also sitting. So there are forums for that accountability to happen.

I will certainly be making further contributions during the course of the day about the importance of transparency and oversight. It is disappointing that there hasn't been agreement from others to a joint committee, or to two joint committees, that could have been chaired by non-government members—which could have, in effect, stood in while parliament is not sitting. It is disappointing that that's not the case. It's something that we will, and may, pursue further in the Senate, and I will pursue it further in the later contributions, but I don't intend to stand in the way of this motion being put now.

Question agreed to.