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

We're heading to the weekend. I have two suggestions for weekend reading for the Manager of Opposition Business. There's a little book, and there's a big book. They're both green, and they tell you the rules.

When it comes to an amendment, there are two ways you can move an amendment in the House. The first way you move an amendment is you have the amendment circulated, in which case you then say, 'I move the amendment which has been circulated in my name.' I respect that the Manager of Opposition Business is very new to being a member of this House and hasn't seen this done before! The second option, if you have not circulated it—and the shadow Treasurer knows this rule, so you can explain it to him because we made the shadow Treasurer do this when he didn't have one of his amendments circulated—is you read out every word of the amendment to the House. I just read out every word of the amendment to the House. I checked those words before I read them out to the House with the Clerk to make sure that they were in order. When every word is read out, it doesn't need to be circulated. That's why, when someone moves 'that the question be put', they don't need to have a piece of paper that says the words 'that the question be put'. That's why when a whole lot of motions are moved in this House, if you say it out loud, you don't need to have circulated it.

The Manager of Opposition Business seems to have developed this concept that if he occasionally stands up and says, as slowly as possible, 'standing order 104(a)' that people think that means he knows the whole rulebook. No, it means he knows one paragraph on one page where he can stand up regularly and still get it wrong. So, for the Manager of Opposition Business, I simply say that we're taking the opposition at their word. If you've come in here and said that you've done the about face; that you now want to be constructive; that you have recognised that the way to be constructive is to back the agenda of this government in making sure that we're looking after Australians, in making sure that we're dealing with people who might be engaging in price gouging and in making sure absolutely that we are securing a fair deal for the trucking industry at the current time; and that everything those opposite said last term is no longer true, then we welcome that. We support it. Let's get it done before question time today. Without writing it on a piece of paper—but you can just hear me say the words—I will then, once the amendment is stated, move that the question be put.

See this speech in context