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House of Representatives                                Ch 9                                                 p 292

Authority of the Speaker

The standing orders direct the Speaker to amend any notice of motion which contains inappropriate language or which does not conform to the standing orders. ¹ The House in effect places an obligation on the Speaker to scrutinise the form and content of motions which are to come before the House.

It has been ruled that a notice of motion practically incorporating a speech cannot be given. ² In 1977 the Speaker referred to the form of notices, noting that notices which were inordinately and unnecessarily long continued to be given, and that Members were tending to use notices to narrate a long argument rather than to put a concise proposition for determination by the House. The Speaker said that if Members continued to misuse the procedure he would have to intervene to have Members reform their notices or to have the Clerks eliminate the argument and unnecessary statements. ³ The view and direction put forward by the Speaker were adhered to and came to constitute the practice of the House.

Problems with the length and content of notices were most evident when notices were given openly, and this reflected the fact that the occasion of giving a notice orally did present Members with the opportunity to convey the substance of a proposition or a proposal at a time when attendance in the Chamber and the galleries was high, and often when proceedings were being broadcast. After the abolition of the practice of the giving of notices openly, and the opportunity provided by Members’ statements ( see Chapter on ‘Non-government business’), these problems were no longer as evident.

The fact that a notice was disallowed when given openly did not prevent it appearing in amended form on the Notice Paper. A Member could amend a notice and give it openly in an acceptable form when he or she next obtained the call when notices were being given, or the Member could hand it to the Clerk in amended form at any time.

In 1912 a notice of motion to the effect that an Address be presented to the Governor-General informing him that the Opposition merited the censure of the House and the country for a number of stated reasons (which parodied the Leader of the Opposition’s amendment to the Address in Reply) was ruled out of order on the ground that it was frivolous. Subsequently a motion stating that the Speaker’s action in endeavouring to prevent the Member from reading a notice of motion, and in refusing to accept the notice ‘ . . . was a breach of the powers, privileges and immunities of Members’ was moved and negatived. ⁴ Reinforcing this precedent was a decision of the House in 1920 negativing a motion that the Speaker had infringed the privileges of Members by ruling out of order a notice of motion given openly, thus preventing the notice coming before the House. ⁵

In 1938 the Speaker stated that he would not allow a notice of motion of privilege accusing a Member of ‘blasphemous and treasonable statements of policy and intention’ to be placed on the Notice Paper in that form. ⁶ The Speaker did not state his reasons but presumably it was ruled out of order because of the use of unparliamentary words.

In 1980 the Speaker directed the Clerk to remove a notice from the Notice Paper when his attention was drawn to unparliamentary words contained in it. ⁷ In 1983 a notice given openly was removed from the Notice Paper, with the authority of the Speaker, on the ground that it was frivolous. ⁸

In 1995 the Speaker wrote to a Member, drawing the Member’s attention to the fact that certain matters relevant to a notice lodged by the Member were sub judice and expressing the view that discussion of the matter should not take place. In the event the n otice was amended and eventually debated. ⁹

In 1999 the Speaker held that a notice which referred to another Member in ironic terms could not be published without amendment.

S.O. 109(a).

H.R. Deb. (1.10.12) 3623.

H.R. Deb. (4.5.77) 1510.

H.R. Deb. (1.10.12) 3621-3; VP 1912/161; H.R. Deb. (8.10.12) 3911-33.

H.R. Deb. (25.3.20) 881-2; VP 1920-21/91; H.R. Deb. (26.3.20) 906-10.

VP 1934-37/38; H.R. Deb. (28.11.34) 582-3, 610. The Speaker first ruled that the Member was in order in giving the notice, but later made a statement that in its present form he would not allow it to be placed on the Notice Paper.

H.R. Deb. (17.9.80) 1364.

NP 26 (5.10.83) 1044 (the notice did appear once before being removed).

NP 167 (28.9.95) 8994; NP 176 (20.11.95) 9443-4; VP 1993-95/2573.