Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Carr, I move:

That the Senate adopt the recommendations of the first report of 2013 of the Procedure Committee.

The recommendations are as follows:

Electronic petitions

The committee recommends that the following interpretation continue to be applied:

(a) petitions which have been posted on the internet continue to be accepted as in conformity if the senator presenting them certifies that they have been duly posted with the text available to signatories;

(b) the requirement in standing order 70(5) for a petition to be signed be satisfied by the provision of a person's email address;

(c) a petition containing links to extraneous material be regarded as attracting standing order 70(7) and therefore not in conformity;

(d) there be no change to current practice regarding acceptance of non-resident signatories.

Petitions outside these interpretations will continue to be assessed as not in conformity with the standing orders and dealt with in accordance with existing practices (last expounded in the committee's First report of 1997).

Consideration of non-controversial legislation

The committee recommends that standing order 57(1)(d) be amended as follows:

Omit standing order 57(1)(d), substitute:

(d) On Thursday:

(i) Petitions

(ii) Notices of motion

(iii) Postponement and rearrangement of business

(iv) Formal motions – discovery of formal business

(v) Consideration of committee reports under standing order 62(4)

(vi) Government business

(vii) At 12.45 pm, non-controversial government business only

(viii) At 2 pm, questions

(ix) Motions to take note of answers

(x) Any proposal to debate a matter of public importance or urgency

(xi) Not later than 4.30 pm, general business

(xii) Not later than 6 pm, consideration of government documents under general business

(xiii) Not later than 7 pm, consideration of committee reports and government responses under standing order 62(1)

(xiv) At 8 pm, adjournment proposed

(xv) At 8.40 pm, adjournment.

Open-ended adjournment debate on Tuesdays

The committee recommends that the proposed amendment to standing order 54(6), as follows, be adopted on a trial basis until 30 June 2013:

(1) Omit standing order 54(6), substitute:

(6) On the question for the adjournment of the Senate on Tuesday, a senator shall speak to that question for not more than 5 minutes, except in accordance with the following paragraphs:

  (a) if no other senator wishes to speak for up to 5 minutes, a senator who has not already spoken may speak for up to 10 minutes; and

  (b) if no other senator wishes to speak under paragraph (a), a senator who has not already spoken may speak for up to 20 minutes.

(2) That this order operate as a temporary order until 30 June 2013.

Question agreed to.