Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate adopt the recommendations of the first report of 2016 of the Procedure Committee, relating to ministerial statements and caring for infants.

I want to go through a couple of the key elements of the report. First is that the first recommendation is to adopt the temporary orders on ministerial statements as a permanent standing order. That has been working really well in practice, and the committee certainly believes it enhances the right of senators to hold ministers to account, and so we, the committee, recommend that we adopt that. And, if adopted, it will certainly add to the accountability toolkit.

The second recommendation is a recognition that the Senate as a workplace is changing and it also picks up the fact that many of our senators are now of a younger age and from time to time will have extended parental leave responsibilities, and so what the committee is proposing is that the standing order 175 be amended to allow senators briefly to care for infants in the chamber at the discretion of the President. And, provided that proceedings are not disrupted, this provision would allow for infants—would add to the current provision where we have previously enabled infants to be breastfed in the chamber and adds to the caring component of an infant. And so we believe as a committee this is likely to be used in very rare circumstances where parents have no other option but to bring an infant in with them. So the example would be that they may come in briefly for a division.

And of course, as I mentioned, we have younger senators being elected, and it will provide some flexibility in circumstances where the committee also concluded that any system of a proxy rather than bringing an infant in would be unconstitutional and therefore was not a feasible alternative. But of course we understand that parliaments are changing workplaces. They are also traditional workplaces, and some senators may feel uncomfortable about the proposed change, and others may wonder how it will work in practice. And so my suggestion is that we, obviously, apply common sense, which we have managed to do as a Senate for a very long time, and we will develop our practices over time. And certainly I think it would be useful if we would develop guidance notes for chairs, and I would propose that we work with the President and the temporary chairs to develop what we consider to be a consistent and sensible approach. Certainly at our meeting a couple of weeks ago the temporary chairs felt that they were working well as a group and that we were able to be consistent in our practice. Parliaments have their own cultures and traditions, and we would hope that we could implement this change and accommodate everyone in the Senate.

We think we can be sensible, and that we can maintain the dignity and reputation of the Senate as a workplace of the national legislature. If for any reason there are issues with the new rules, the Procedure Committee can also be asked to look at those and to test the strength of those rules. I commend the recommendations to the Senate.