Ms GILLARD (3:44 PM) —Mr Speaker, I refer you to the fact that on 15 September this year the Leader of the House used a contingent notice of motion to guillotine debate on the Telstra (Transition to Full Private Ownership) Bill 2005 and the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Issues) Bill 2005 despite the fact that the House was provided with only a few hours in which to consider these bills. I am advised that this is the first time since 1986 that a contingent motion has been used, and on that occasion it was used because leave was not granted for a bill to be read a second time. I note that the process is extremely rare; indeed, there are no examples other than these two of a contingent motion being used in the House.

Mr Speaker, can I please ask you to advise the House of your views regarding the use of this parliamentary device, which is clearly about curtailing debate and the rights of members to speak to bills before the House? Can I also ask you to advise the House if you or your staff have engaged in discussions with the Prime Minister, the Leader of the House or their staff about the use of contingent motions? Finally, can I ask you if any discussion took place before the Leader of the House proceeded with his motion on 15 September?

Mr Speaker, there is some urgency in your addressing these issues in that the opposition rightly, in my view, fears that the contingent notice of motion procedure, which is about curtailing debate, will probably be used in this House tomorrow to curtail the industrial relations debate and many members on the opposition benches who wish to speak in that debate will be denied their rights. Then, on Thursday, it appears very likely that the contingent notice of motion will be used to guillotine debate on the Anti-Terrorism Bill (No. 2) 2005, with it having been debated possibly for as little as four hours in this House.

The SPEAKER —I thank the Manager of Opposition Business. That is a detailed question. I am not sure that I will be offering views, but I will give serious consideration to her question. To my knowledge there has been no discussion on the points she raised, but I will check that further and I will report back as soon as I am able to.