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House of Representatives                                Ch 17                                                 p 593

Motion to take note of document

A motion ‘That the House take note of the document’ is a procedure employed in cases where the House may wish to debate the subject matter of a document, whether it is a ministerial statement that has been presented or any other document presented to the House, without coming to any positive decision concerning the document. ¹ If the motion is not moved by a Minister at the time of presentation of the document, it may be moved later on notice, ² or by leave.

It is the usual practice that motions to take note of ministerial statements are debated immediately, shadow ministers having been given advance copies of the statements. However, in the case of the majority of motions to take note of a presented document such as a report, debate is immediately adjourned (customarily on the motion of an opposition Member) and the adjourned debate made an order of the day for the next sitting. The timing of the resumption of debate (possibly in the Main Committee) is a matter for negotiation between the parties.

Before the establishment of the Main Committee a large proportion of these orders of the day were later discharged from the Notice Paper, or lapsed on dissolution, not having been debated. A more recent innovation is the moving to take note of documents presented for the specific purpose of enabling debate or further debate on a matter to be referred to the Main Committee—for example, copies of motions already passed in the House. ³ Orders of the day referred to the Main Committee may be returned to the House after debate. ⁴

When documents are presented together according to a previously circulated list ( see p.  586 ), a single motion may be moved that the House take note of certain documents presented, and the resumption of debate on the motion to take note of each of the documents is made a separate order of the day on the Notice Paper. ⁵

A motion to take note is open to amendment. Amendments generally take the form ‘That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:  . . .’. The terms of such amendments have proposed action relating to the document presented, ⁶ or expressed opinion on the subject of the document. ⁷ It is unusual for a vote to be taken on a motion to take note. ⁸ Normally, debate is adjourned and the order of the day remains on the Notice Paper, thus enabling further debate on the matter if this is desired.

For procedures applying to the presentation of committee and delegation reports see Chs on ‘Non-government business’ and ‘Committees’.

S.O. 202(c).

E.g. VP 2002-04/691; 1064; 1233-4. Another example is a copy of an announcement of the death of a former Member, providing, in effect, the opportunity for a condolence debate, VP 2002-04/1401, 1428.

VP 1993-95/2427.

S.O. 202(b).

E.g. VP 1985-87/882—amendment to disallow regulations that were the subject of the ministerial statement.

E.g. VP 2002-04/400, 709, 725-6 (amendment to proposed amendment)—amendments critical of government position given in ministerial statements, and expressing alternative views.

Rare examples of a ‘take note’ being agreed to: VP 1970-72/667 (Privileges Committee report); VP 1995-96/2293-4 

(ministerial statement on ‘An Australian Republic’).