Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Hansard source

On 12 October I undertook to report to the Senate on a point of order raised by Senator Troeth. Her point of order was that a question by Senator Fielding about stem cell research violated certain prohibitions under standing order 73 relating to questions without notice. The prohibitions to which she drew attention are on questions referring to debates in the current session, questions referring to proceedings in committee not reported to the Senate and questions anticipating discussion on an order of the day or other matter which appears on the Notice Paper. The particular question was not out of order under these prohibitions.

By long-established practice, the prohibitions in relation to debates in the current session or matters on the Notice Paper are interpreted with great liberality because there is always so much unfinished business on the Notice Paper and so many matters which have been debated, such as government documents, that virtually any question would refer to some such item of business. A question is not out of order unless it would restrict the right of senators to speak in a substantive debate on a matter. Also, many of the matters on the Notice Paper will not be reached, so the prohibitions are interpreted with regard to the likelihood of a particular matter being debated by the Senate in the near future. In relation to bills, as I pointed out in response to Senator Troeth, the prohibitions are not applied to bills unless substantive debate on them has commenced and a question clearly seeks to usurp the position of that debate in the order of business.

The prohibition on unreported proceedings in committee refers to proceedings in the Committee of the Whole, not matters referred to standing or select committees. Again, this prohibition is intended to prevent question time taking the place of proceedings on a bill or other matter which have commenced and are still on foot. A senator could not, for example, ask a question about the intention or effect of an amendment to a bill which is currently under consideration in the Committee of the Whole. Questions are not permitted which would interfere with the deliberations of a standing or select committee, but there is no prohibition on questions about subjects which are before such committees. Finally, Senator Fielding’s question was about government funding of stem cell research in general and in any event did not refer to the legislative proposals which are before the Community Affairs Committee.

In the course of a question at question time on 12 October, and in debate on a motion to take note of answers after question time, references were made to a press report about Senator Ian Campbell, and remarks relayed in that report were quoted. Some of those remarks constituted offensive words under standing order 193. The Deputy President, Senator Hogg, who was in the chair during the debate on the motion to take note of answers, drew to the attention of all senators the principle that unparliamentary language cannot be used by way of quoting other sources. This is a long-established rule of the Senate, upheld by presidential rulings and reports of the procedure and privileges committees. I would like to also draw the Senate’s attention to that rule.