Senate debates

Wednesday, 11 September 2019

Motions

Domestic and Family Violence

3:42 pm

Photo of Scott RyanScott Ryan (President) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, please! This is not an opportunity for debate. In the past this motion has been voted on. There has not been a division, but it is not correct to assert the motion has not been voted on and a senator is asking for it to be voted on for the first time. That is incorrect. They get decided on the voices; they just don't go to a division. They have the same force of the Senate. This may or may not go to a division, but I think it is an unfair reflection on any senator who asks for a motion to be split to be making an assertion about what they may express. This is formal business where we don't debate. There are other opportunities for debate. I will respect the will of the Senate, which is that a senator is allowed to vote on a clause separately. My ruling here—and I will advise the chamber if I am wrong—is that (b)(iii) can be excised and voted on separately, because it does not affect the sense of the motion, even if it is a substantive issue. First, I will put the motion, absent clause (b)(iii). The effect of that would be that (b)(iv), (v) and (vi) become (b)(iii), (iv) and (v) if (b)(iii) is not supported. The question is that the motion, with (b)(iii) excised, be agreed to.

Question agreed to.

Now the question is to include (b)(iii) in the resolution.

Question agreed to.

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