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House of Representatives                                Ch 10                                                 p 354

Resumption of debate

Debate may not be resumed for some time, depending on the Government’s legislative program, and during this time public and Members’ attitudes to the proposal may be formulated.

An order of the day set down for a specified day is not necessarily order of the day No. 1 for that day, nor does it necessarily mean that the item will be considered on that day. ¹

The fixing of a day for the resumption of a debate is a resolution of the House and may not be varied without a rescission (on seven days’ notice) of the resolution. ² However, a rescission motion could be moved by leave or after suspension of standing orders. In 1973 the order of the House making the second reading of a bill an order of the day for the next sitting was rescinded on motion, by leave, and the second reading made an order of the day for that sitting. ³ The purpose of fixing ‘the next sitting’ or a specific future day ensures that, without subsequent action by the House, the order of the day will not be called on before the next sitting or the specified day.

On occasions debate may ensue, with the leave of the House, immediately after the Minister has made the second reading speech. ⁴ By the granting of leave, the mandatory provision of standing order 142(a) concerning the adjournment of the debate no longer applies, and a division may be called on any subsequent motion for the adjournment of the debate. ⁵ Alternatively, after the second reading speech, debate may, by leave, be adjourned until a later hour on the same day that the bill is presented. ⁶ If leave is refused in either of these cases, the same effect can be achieved by the suspension of standing orders. The contingent notice described at page 352 has been moved to this end after the Minister’s second reading speech. ⁷

If the second reading has been set down for a future sitting day, on that day the Minister makes the second reading speech when the order of the day is called on, and debate may be adjourned by an opposition Member ⁸ in the normal way. The second reading debate may proceed immediately however, as the provision concerning the mandatory adjournment of debate when the second reading has been moved immediately after the first reading does not apply.

As with all adjourned debates, when an adjourned second reading debate is resumed, the Member who moved the adjournment of the debate is entitled to the first call to speak. ⁹ However, usually it is the opposition spokesperson on the bill’s subject matter who resumes the debate, and this may not be the same Member who obtained the adjournment of the debate. On resumption of the second reading debate the Leader of the Opposition, or a Member deputed by the Leader of the Opposition—in practice a member of the opposition executive—may speak for 30 minutes. The Member so deputed, generally the shadow minister, is usually, but not necessarily, the first speaker when the debate is resumed.

NP 45 (5.12.74) 4942. For example the House resolved on 28 November 1974 to make resumption of the second reading debate on the Family Law Bill 1974 an order of the day for 11 February 1975, VP 1974-75/383-4. The item was listed as order of the day No. 3 but was not called on, NP 46 (11.2.75) 5085.

S.O. 120.

VP 1973-74/243.

E.g. VP 1978-80/1188; VP 1990-92/1963, 2001; VP 1996-98/3173.

H.R. Deb. (21.3.72) 906.

VP 1968-69/312. VP 2002-04/291.

VP 1985-87/1071.

VP 1974-75/449.

S.O. 79(b); H.R. Deb. (16.9.58) 1251.