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House of Representatives                                Ch 4                                                 p 107

The Chamber

The Chamber, like the Chamber of the British House of Commons and the Chamber of the provisional Parliament House, is furnished predominantly in green. The derivation of the traditional use of green is uncertain. ¹ The shades of green selected for the new Chamber were chosen as representing the tones of native eucalypts.

Facing the main Chamber entrance from the Members’ Hall is the Speaker’s Chair and the Table of the House of Representatives. ² High on the Chamber wall above the Speaker’s Chair is the Australian Coat of Arms. Four Australian national flags are mounted from the ceiling in each corner of the Chamber, and an additional two flags flank the main entrance.

Immediately in front of the Speaker’s Chair are chairs for the Clerk of the House and the Deputy Clerk. Set into the Clerk’s desk is a button which enables the division bells to be activated with associated flashing green lights in rooms and lobbies of the building. A similar system operates from the Senate using red lights. The bells are rung for five minutes before the time fixed for the commencement of each sitting ³ and before the time fixed for the resumption of a sitting after a suspension. Before any division or ballot is taken, the Clerk rings the bells for the period specified by standing order, as indicated by the sandglasses kept on the Table for that purpose. ⁴ For most divisions a four-minute sandglass is used; a one-minute sandglass is used when successive divisions are taken and there is no intervening debate after the first division. ⁵ The bells are also rung to summon Members to the Chamber for the purpose of establishing a quorum. ⁶

Electronic speech timing clocks are set on the walls below each side gallery. The hand is moved by remote control by the Deputy Clerk to indicate the number of minutes allowed for a speech. ⁷ The clocks automatically return anti-clockwise to zero. A small amber warning light is illuminated on each clock face one minute before the time for the speech expires.

Microphones in the Chamber are used for the broadcast and telecast of the proceedings of the House and for sound reinforcement purposes. The broadcast announcements are made from a booth at the back of the Chamber. Control of the broadcast also occurs there with the control of the telecast taking place in a basement production control room. Amplifiers are provided in the Chamber in order that speeches may be heard by Members. The Chamber floor is equipped with facilities for hearing-impaired persons wearing hearing aids. Only the microphone of the Speaker is live all the time. The nearest microphone to a Member is switched on when he or she is making a speech. Proceedings of both Houses are relayed to rooms throughout the building.

The House of Representatives Chamber

Plan for the 41st Parliament

In 1968 a proposal to install an indicator panel in the Chamber in the provisional building which would display th e name and electoral division of the Member speaking was considered by the Speaker but was not proceeded with. The installation of an electronic voting system has been considered from time to time. Necessary conduits have been provided, and Members’ desks have been designed so that control switches can be installed should a decision be taken by the House to install electronic voting in the future. Connections to the parliamentary computer network are provided to each desk and at the Table for Members’ laptop computers.

Two despatch boxes, with elaborate silver and enamel decorations, are situated on the Table in front of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk, respectively. These were a gift from King George V to mark the opening of the provisional Parliament House in Canberra in 1927 and the inauguration of the sittings of the Parliament in the national capital. ⁸ The despatch boxes, which are purely ornamental, are exact replicas of those which lay on the Table at Westminster prior to their loss when the Commons Chamber was destroyed by bombs in 1941. They are a continuing link between the House of Commons and the House of Representatives. The Prime Minister, Ministers and members of the opposition executive speak ‘from the despatch box’. The origin of the boxes is obscure, the most accepted theory being that in early times Ministers, Members and the Clerk of the House of Commons carried their papers in a box and, thus, one or more boxes were generally deposited on the Table.

The Chamber of the House of Representatives is used only by the House itself, for some joint meetings or sittings of the House and Senate, and for the occasional major international parliamentary conference.

J. M. Davies, ‘Red and Green’, The Table XXXVII, 1968, p. 33.

The original Speaker’s Chair, described in detail in the first edition, remained in its place in the provisional building.

S.O. 54.

S.O.s 129(a), 136(b).

S.O. 131(a).

S.O. 56(a).

S.O. 1 (time limits for speeches).

VP 1926-28/349.