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Ch16 Non-government business / GRIEVANCE DEBATE / Origins



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House of Representatives                                Ch 16                                                 p 571

 

Non-government business / GRIEVANCE DEBATE

 

Origins

The grievance debate is derived from the centuries old financial procedures of the House of Commons. The traditional insistence of the Commons on considering grievances before granting supply to the Crown found expression in the practice of prefacing consideration in Committee of Supply by the motion ‘That Mr Speaker do now leave the Chair’. The question now proposed in the House of Representatives is ‘That grievances be noted’. It is because of the procedural origins of the grievance debate that it is listed on the Notice Paper as an order of the day under government business, rather than private Members’ business.