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SENATE STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE
First Report for the Sixtieth Session
October 1981
Presented and ordered to be printed 15 October 1981
Parliamentary Paper No. 361/1981
Parliamentary Paper No. 361/1981
The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia
SENATE STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE
First Report for Sixtieth Session
October 1981
The Commonwealth Government Printer Canberra 1982
© Commonwealth of Australia 1982
ISBN 0 644 01713 9
Printed by Authority by the Commonwealth Government Printer
STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE
FIRST REPORT FOR THE SIXTIETH SESSION 1980-81
The Standing Orders Committee has the honour to report
to the Senate on the following matters in respect of
which the Committee has agreed to make recommendations
to the Senate.
1. MEMBERSHIP OF THE COMMITTEE
1. The Committee has had difficulty in the past in
meeting, and this has been partly due to the difficulty
of finding a time for meeting convenient to the Leader
of the Government and the Leader of the Opposition, who
have been elected members of the Committee for some
years and who have many calls upon their time. As a
solution to this problem, the Committee recommends that
the Standing Order for the appointment of the Committee,
Standing Order 33, be amended to provide for the two
Leaders to be ex officio members and to allow them to appoint
other Senators to act in their place as memebers of the
Committee when they are not able to attend meetings. It is
accordingly recommended that Standing Order 33 be amended
as shown in Appendix A.
2. DEPUTY-PRESIDENT
2. The Committee considers that the title of the
Chairman of Committees is misleading, particularly
2.
because of the Senate's active Committee system and the
consequent confusion between the Chairman of Committees
of the Whole and Chairmen of Senate standing committees.
The Committee accordingly recommends that the role of
this important elected officer of the Senate be more
accurately recognised by the use of the title Deputy-
President, a title which already exists in the Standing
Orders. The Committee suggests that the official title
of the position be Deputy-President and Chairman of
Committees, that the title Deputy-President be generally
used and that the title Chairman of Committees be
restricted to the role of the position as Chairman of
Committees of the Whole. Amendments of the Standing
Orders which the Committee recommends to achieve this
usage are set out in Appendix B.
3. PRESENTATION AND CONSIDERATION OF GOVERNMENT REPORTS
3. The Committee has given consideration to the time
which is being taken, usually every sitting day, in
the moving and debating of motions to take note of
reports presented by Ministers. It is a matter of concern
that, virtually each sitting day, the business of the day
is delayed, often extensively, by the moving of motions
to take note of these reports. The Committee therefore
suggests that for a trial period, by Sessional Order, the
Senate adopt the following procedure, which, it is believed,
will allow the more orderly consideration of business without
unduly interfering with the right of Senators to comment upon
Government reports at the time of their presentation:
3.
(a) reports shall be presented by Ministers
on Thursdays only, unless there are exceptional
circumstances requiring the presentation of
particular reports on other days;
(b) no petitions shall be received on Thursdays;
(c) before the Discovery of Formal Business, it
shall be in order for Senators to move motions
to take note of reports presented by Minsters
and to speak for a time not exceeding ten
minutes to such motions;
(d) the consideration of such motions shall conclude
after one and a half hours or at 1.00 p.m.
whichever is the earlier, provided that,
if less than one and a half hours is available
for the consideration of such motions before
1.00 p.m., the balance of the one and a half
hours shall be available at 8.00 p.m.; and
(e) when motions to take note of Government reports
are again called on in the normal course of business,
Senators who have spoken under the special
arrangement may again speak to the motion in the
normal way ,
4. A sessional order incorporating this arrangement
is recommended by the Committee and appears in
Appendix C.
Harold Young Chairman
APPENDIX A
STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE
PROPOSED AMENDMENT OF STANDING ORDER 33
That Standing Order 33 be amended to read as follows:
33. A Standing Orders Committee, to consist of
the President, the Deputy-President, the
Leader of the Government in the Senate, the
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and
six Senators, shall be appointed at the
commencement of each Parliament, with power
to act during Recess and to confer with a
similar Committee of the House of Representatives.
Provided that, if at any time the Leader of
the Government in the Senate or the Leader
of the Opposition in the Senate is unable
to attend a meeting of the Committee, he
may appoint a Senator to act in his place
as a member of the Committee at that meeting.
APPENDIX B
DEPUTY-PRESIDENT
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS OF STANDING ORDERS
That the Standing Orders be amended as follows:
(1) The heading of Chapter III - by inserting before the
words "Chairman of Committees" the words "Deputy-
President and".
(2) Standing Order 26 - by inserting before the words
"Chairman of Committees" the words "Deputy-President and".
(3) Standing Order 27 - by inserting before the words
"Chairman of Committees" the words"Deputy-President and".
(4) Standing Order 29 -(a) by leaving out the words "Chairman of Committees"
and inserting in their stead the words "Deputy-President"
(b) by leaving out the words "as Deputy-President".
(5) Standing Order 30 - by leaving out the words "Chairman
of Committees" and inserting in their stead "Deputy-President"
(6) Standing Order 31 -(a) by leaving out the words "Chairman of Committees" and
inserting in their stead the words "Deputy-President".
(b) by leaving out the words "as Deputy-President".
(7) Standing Order 31A - by leaving out the words "Chairman of
Committees" and inserting in their stead the words
"Deputy-President".
(8) Standing Order 166 - by leaving out the words "Chairman of
Committees" and inserting in their stead the words "Deputy-
President" .
(9) Standing Order 167 - by leaving out the words "Chairman of
Committees" and inserting in their stead the words "Deputy-
President" .
5 .
6.
(10) Standing Order 291 - by leaving out the words "Chairman of
Committees" and inserting in their stead the words "Deputy-
President" .
7 .
APPENDIX C
CONSIDERATION OF GOVERNMENT REPORTS
PROPOSED SESSIONAL ORDER
That, unless otherwise ordered and notwithstanding anything
contained in the Standing Orders, on Thursdays no petitions
may be presented, and, prior to Formal Motions, Papers may
be presented by Ministers. Upon the presentation of such papers
a Senator may move, without notice, that the Senate take note of
one, or several, of the papers. Senators may not speak to any
such motion for more than ten minutes, and the consideration of
any such motion shall be interrupted after the expiration of
1*5 hours or at 1.00 p.m. , whichever is the earlier.
Provided that, if the consideration of all such motions has not
extended for 1% hours at 1.00 p.m., debate on any such motion
interrupted at 1.00 p.m. may be continued at 8.00 p.m. , and
further such motions may be moved and debated, and such debate
shall take precedence of other General Business until the
consideration of all such motions has extended for 1^ hours,
or until there is no further debate.
Where debates on motions moved under the provisions of this
Sessional Order are adjourned and are called on in the normal
course of business, Senators who have spoken to the questions
under the provision of this Sessional Order may again speak
for the time allowed under Standing Order 407A.
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