Mr LATHAM —Mr Acting Speaker, are you aware of a commitment given by the Prime Minister that consideration of the euthanasia bill would not clash with consideration of the 1996 budget? Can you, therefore, seek an assurance that we will not face a situation whereby the House—this main chamber—is debating budget related bills while concurrently in the Main Committee, which used to be for non-controversial matters, the euthanasia bill is being debated? I for one will be opposing both the euthanasia bill and the budget, and it is beyond my powers to be in two places at the one time.

Mr ACTING SPEAKER —The question you raise is before the Selection Committee and it is for the Selection Committee to make the decision. I will make sure the members of the Selection Committee are aware of the points you raise.

Mr REITH —Mr Acting Speaker, on indulgence on that matter, there have been discussions about the handling of the private member's bill. There has been a general understanding that, once the matter is further raised in this chamber—which will presumably be next week—there will be a referral of that bill to the Main Committee. That has been the understanding—

Mr Latham —That is a bad thing to do.

Mr REITH —Well, that has been the understanding between both sides of politics.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr REITH —The Manager of Opposition Business (Mr Crean) and I have had discussions about the proper handling of the matter. There are a lot of issues before the parliament. The other matter I would put to you is that the general understanding and the conventions that have developed in respect of the Main Committee are that we do not set up a hierarchy of matters as to whether things should be in the Main Committee or in the House. Obviously, on that basis, we would end up with all the matters back in the House. That has been the understanding. If people want—

Mr Latham —No.

Mr REITH —That has been the understanding. If members want to discuss the matter, obviously, we will happily discuss it with them. Naturally, we also have a very significant workload within the chamber with the appropriation bills and other matters, and we do have to look at according those matters time in the House. Lastly, the government's commitment was that all those who wished to speak on the bill would have an opportunity to do so.

Mr CREAN —On indulgence, Mr Acting Speaker, the agreement that I had with the Leader of the House is that, after Tuesday when the debate on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) concludes in this House, the remainder of the bills will be referred to the Main Committee. That is the understanding that we have.

As for what else goes to the Main Committee, we do not have understandings at this stage, except on the specific matters that we have agreed. I do not know about discussions in relation to the euthanasia bill, for example. But the appropriation bill going to the Main Committee on Wednesday and Thursday, when it is required, is something that we do have agreement upon.

Mr REITH —I seek indulgence—

Mr ACTING SPEAKER —Before I give you indulgence, I would just like to make the point that we do not want to get into the habit of having something like the US Open or Wimbledon with indulgences going backwards and forwards.

Mr REITH —On indulgence, I apologise to the honourable member. I genuinely believed there had been an understanding reached. We will have to discuss it further. I thought that was the situation.