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Ch14 Control and conduct of debate / POWERS OF CHAIR TO ENFORCE ORDER / Direction to leave the Chamber



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House of Representatives                                Ch 14                                                 p 520

 

Control and conduct of debate / POWERS OF CHAIR TO ENFORCE ORDER

 

Direction to leave the Chamber

Pursuant to standing order 94(a), if the Speaker considers a Member’s conduct to be disorderly he or she may direct the Member to leave the Chamber 1 for one hour. This action is taken as an alternative to naming the Member—the decision as to whether a naming or a direction to leave is more appropriate is a matter for the Speaker’s discretion. The direction to leave is not open to debate or dissent. When so directed, a Member failing to leave the Chamber immediately 2 or continuing to behave in a disorderly manner may be named. 3

The Speaker has not proceeded with a direction to leave the Chamber after the Member concerned (the Leader of the Opposition) had apologised for interjecting in a disorderly manner. 4 Six Members (including a Minister) have been directed to leave on a single day. 5

This procedure was introduced in 1994 following a recommendation by the Procedure Committee. The committee, noting the seriousness of a suspension and that the process was time-consuming and itself disruptive, considered that order in the House would be better maintained if the Speaker were to have available a disciplinary procedure of lesser gravity, but of greater speed of operation. The committee saw its proposed mechanism as a means of removing a source of disorder rather than as a punishment, enabling a situation to be defused quickly before it deteriorated, and without disrupting proceedings to any great extent. 6

A Member directed to leave the Chamber for an hour is also excluded during that period from the Chamber galleries and the room in which the Main Committee is meeting. 7



Former S.O. 304A used the term ‘order the Member to withdraw from the House’.



VP 1996-98/758-9, 2461-2 (the naming supersedes the direction to leave the Chamber).



E.g. VP 1998-2001/397-8, 2052, 2126; VP 2002-04/1527-8.



VP 1998-2001/663.



VP 1998-2001/1548, 1550; H.R. Deb. (21.6.2000) 17873-6. Other Ministers directed to leave: VP 1998-2001/2328-9, H.R. Deb. (6.6.2001) 27409-10; VP 2002-04/1493-4, H.R. Deb. (9.3.2004) 26269.



Standing Committee on Procedure, About time: bills, questions and working hours . PP 194 (1993) 28.



S.O. 94(e).