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

I respect, Mr Speaker, that this is not the ordinary time that questions to the Speaker are asked. I understand that the Leader of the House is aware that I'm raising this as well. Given the circumstances of the ACT and lockdowns around the country, it is not impossible to imagine a situation where, at some point during this term, the standing order that allows an amendment to the manner and form of parliament may need to include within its principles a change to the required quorum. If that were to happen, depending on your ruling, we'd potentially have a problem. If there were to be an agreement between me and the Leader of the House on a change to quorum, what would matter is: at what point does that agreement take effect? Does it take effect when it's received by you or does it take effect when it's tabled in the House? If it doesn't take effect until it's tabled in the House, we'd need to get the old quorum to be able to then reduce it, which potentially could hit health issues. It was a long explanation, I know, but the question to you, Mr Speaker, is: for agreements between me and the Leader of the House under the standing orders on the manner and form provisions, at what point is your ruling that they would take effect?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Manager of Opposition Business for his question. It's a timely one. As you said, the Leader of the House is aware of this. It's good to be able to answer that question but also remind members of that resolution passed back on 23 March last year, when the pandemic was in its early days, and both the Manager of Opposition Business and the Leader of the House spoke at that time about just having the necessary preparations and the necessary change to standing orders in place in case we reached an extreme circumstance. As the Manager of Opposition Business rightly points out, we're not at that point, and I don't see that in the immediate future, but of course things do move quickly. Members are more familiar with the other part of the resolution, which allows them to remote in. Obviously that's had a lot more attention. But obviously the government, the Leader of the House, have control over when we sit. If we need to sit with a lower quorum, that requires an agreement, as the Manager of Opposition Business has said, between the Leader of the House and him. At that point, I'm authorised, under the standing orders, to determine a lower quorum.

Having thought about this long and hard over many months, the practical thing to say to the House—and it's important that it is reiterated here in the House—is that, once such an agreement has been made, or, in other words, once the Leader of the House has determined a sitting period on behalf of the government if there wasn't one scheduled, if there were required to be a lower quorum, that agreement would be reached, and once it was transmitted to me, prior to a sitting, I would say that that has taken effect, so we would resume with the lower figure, and it would be tabled for completeness. That way, everyone would know what the situation is. That is my approach for it. I don't think we need to do anything right now. Does the Leader of the House wish to add anything? No.

That's really where we're at. I'll just say to the Leader of the House and to the Manager of Opposition Business: that resolution back on 23 March last year was an important resolution so that the House could continue its business. There are things parliament has to do. As the Leader of the House and the Manager of Opposition Business know, there was legislation that had to be passed this week, so it's important we've got a mechanism to be able to do that. I think, when that resolution was passed, the prevailing view was that we thought we'd never need it, even for the remote parliament at that point, but it's enabled us to have that flexibility. I hope that clarifies matters, and I think placing it on the Hansard record is important not just for the information of members and senators but for wider issues as well about how we would approach that in the lead-up to such a sitting.