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

I thank the Leader of the House for moving this and the cooperation and consultation that's gone on with everything about today—this motion included, which has been going on for quite some time. To put it in the most practical terms, for today's sitting we had 30 pairs a side. The reason we couldn't do more than 30 pairs a side was that we had to make sure we had 76 people here to be able to suspend standing orders, as the first thing we did today.

We may be in a situation in the weeks to come when we sit where we automatically are getting more than 30 people a side who can't get here. This would allow in those circumstances that a suspension still could be carried in a circumstance where the opposition and the government agree. So, if you simply imagine that all the processes that happened today would have been impossible if more than 30 a side had been unable to get here, this will mean that that then becomes possible again—once again, something that we hope won't need to be used and certainly would operate quite separately to the other. It could be used at the same time, but it's not necessarily connected to the sessional order that we dealt with a moment ago. Again, thank you, Mr Speaker and the Leader of the House.

Question agreed to.

House adjourned at 23:11 until a date and hour to be fixed by the Speaker, in accordance with the resolution agreed to earlier this sitting.

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