Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question relates to the proceedings of the Standing Committee on Family and Human Services, chaired by the member for Mackellar. A meeting was scheduled for 10 am on Monday of this week to continue deliberations on the committee’s report on balancing work and family. I advised the committee secretary that Labor members would not be able to participate as an important party meeting had been called and I requested that the meeting be postponed to later that day. He later informed me that he had spoken to the committee chair, the member for Mackellar, who advised him that the meeting would not be postponed. I phoned the chair to request a postponement and left a message on her mobile phone. The meeting went ahead with a quorum of government members only and proceeded to complete the committee’s deliberations on all remaining sections of the report. The meeting also agreed to allow for out of session tabling of the report and authorised the chair to selectively release the report under standing order 242. My question to you is whether it is contrary to all committee practice in this place that the committee chair holds a meeting to ram through a final report of an inquiry that has been running for two years at a time when no opposition members of the committee can attend because they are voting in a leadership ballot.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fowler has raised a serious question. I will look closely at the point she has raised and give it serious consideration and will respond as appropriate.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question relates to the ability of a committee to determine its meeting times. Does the business of the parliament have to come to a standstill for one vote by the opposition members when a meeting called for 10 o’clock went until—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Mackellar will be heard.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A vote was taken at about 10.15 by Labor Party members and we were still waiting for those members to come as late as 12.15. They did not come.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar I think was raising a question or perhaps making a statement. I will look closely at the points raised by the member for Mackellar and respond as appropriate.

Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I would ask you to confirm that, in accordance with the principles of House of Representatives committee procedure, all members of a committee are entitled to receive information commissioned by the committee both automatically and on request. I would like to ask whether, in your view, work commissioned by the Standing Committee on Family and Human Services at a cost of $17,000 should have been made available to all members of the committee to assist them in framing recommendations, particularly as this economic modelling would have had a significant bearing on a range of proposals that were being considered by the committee. Further, in your view, is it a breach of established procedures for a committee to adopt a final report and recommendations knowing that this vital information had not been made available to the Labor members of the committee?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Throsby for her question. She raises a very detailed question. I will give consideration to responding to her as appropriate.

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I have a question to you on a related topic. Mr Speaker, would you agree that it is completely unreasonable to expect me to write a dissenting report prior to the given deadline of 2 pm tomorrow in light of the fact that I am yet to see a copy of the complete final report to which I am dissenting, let alone the $17,000 research commissioned by the committee? As such, my question to you, Mr Speaker, is will you reject any request from the chair of the committee to table this report out of session and instead insist upon it being tabled when the parliament resumes next year?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Adelaide has raised two points there. Firstly, I think she was requesting an opinion and, secondly, I feel the latter part of her question was hypothetical. I feel that at this stage I cannot answer further, but I will look closely at her question.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, would you confirm that sending material to members of a committee electronically is a perfectly proper way to do so and that perhaps some people do not open their boxes?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note the point raised in the question from the member for Mackellar and I think the answer is self-evident.

Harry Quick (Franklin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask whether the chair of any committee should require public servants to work day and night for several weeks—in this instance, ironically enough, on a report on balancing work and family life. I seek your guidance on whether committee secretariat staff should be expected to work past midnight and work chronically unreasonable hours to meet the insatiable demands of the chair, the member for Mackellar, for a report that she proceeds to withhold from other committee members. Mr Speaker, I also seek your advice on whether a committee chair who passes a motion when half of the committee is unavoidably absent, giving her the authority to disclose sections of the report to media at her discretion, is in breach of privilege if she discloses any content before tabling the report.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I say in response to the member for Franklin that if he wishes to raise matters about an individual in this place he should do so through a substantive motion. However, he does raise a number of other points in the detail of his question and I will look closely at them and respond as appropriate.

John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence, and directly relevant to the matters raised by my colleagues on this side of the House, I want to draw your attention to my speech in this House at 9.20 pm on 3 August 2004, when I was the Deputy Chair of the House of Representatives—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Lowe will resume his seat. There are other means by which he can raise that point.