Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not think the alacrity with which the Leader of the House has responded to the report tabled this week should go unremarked. The proposed changes, I must say, are not of great moment; nevertheless, they are worth while. I wished that the leader responded to all reports with such alacrity. For example, I notice that the Special Minister of State, a former distinguished chairman of the Procedure Committee, himself brought down a report, which I totally supported, entitled Balancing tradition and progress: procedures for the opening of parliament. That only took three years and 10 months to be rejected.

Mr Deputy Speaker Jenkins, I know your interest in the standing orders. Changed arrangements that were initiated by a distinguished predecessor in the chair—Speaker Andrew—have yet to be responded to even though the committee reported back in 2003.

I have always given the member for Mackellar credit for her enthusiasm about House estimates committees. Again, the report entitled House estimates: consideration of the annual estimates by the House of Representatives was brought down in October 2003, and we still do not have a response.

The first of these two changes permits a debate about the election of a Speaker by the nominators of the Speaker in the circumstances where there is no ballot or contest. We have placed the Clerk of the House in the unenviable position of needing to enforce the standing orders and thus members who nominated, for example our current Speaker, and the person who seconded the nomination, were not, according to the standing orders, able to speak. Mr Deputy Speaker, I know that you would be pleased, as I am, that the standing orders were not so rigidly enforced that they were not able to make a contribution. Nevertheless, that aspect has been tidied up.

The other matter refers to the presentation of explanatory memoranda simultaneously with the beginning of a second reading speech. It is a relatively small matter but one, again, that needed to be tidied up.

The reports of the Procedure Committee are unanimous reports reflecting the efforts of the coalition members and the opposition members on that committee. To the Special Minister of State moving these changes to the standing orders I indicate on behalf of the opposition that we too will be supporting these changes.

Question agreed to.

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