Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Under standing order 45(c), I move:

That order of the day No. 2, government business, be called on immediately.

To advise members of the impact of this—there is a notice on the Notice Paper to make sure we can get through all of the amendments in a reasonable time. I'm going to have a go at not moving that and just see if we can try to get through things quickly. I'll look at the clock as we're going.

I respect that members will have commitments and planes that have been booked for people who live a long way away, so my first option, if it looks like we're running out of time, will be to cut short—not eliminate but cut short—the one hour of debate of the matter of public importance. We'd probably just have the first couple of speakers or something like that. But, certainly, the MPI will start; there's no world where we wouldn't do that today.

But, if we end up in a situation where the motion that's on the Notice Paper to limit the time of debate on each amendment is required because we're going long, I'll move it in those situations. I'd ask members to be mindful of the different circumstances of other members in trying to make sure that we can have every amendment moved but still get through the business of the House in a reasonable time.

Question agreed to.

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