My submission to the Standing Orders Review

My major submission is that Standing Orders should be amended so that it explicitly allows for any party or MP to do a minority report on a bill, including their own marked up version of the bill, and further that at second reading the member in charge of the bill can move for a particular version of the bill to be adoped by the House, even if not the majority report of the committee.

I support the proposition that ACT has advanced previously that select committee membership should be allocated on the basis of non-executive membership of the House. In practice this would mean that the Government would rarely have a majority on select committees.

If an opposition dominated (or tied) select committee makes changes to the bill not in accordance with the majority of the House, then these amendments can only be made the Committee of the House stage which is far from ideal.

By explicitly allowing select committes to publish minority reports and minority bill versions, and allowing the House at second reading to adopt them, this would mean a much more orderly approach than using the Committee of the House stage and would ensure work done by select committee members is worthwhile, even if not supported by the majority of the select committee.

That SO 249(1) be amended to read “Subject to paragraph (2), a select committee must, in its report, include differing views when one or more members indicate a wish to do so, including a marked up version of a bill that differs from the majority version.”

That SO 305 be amended to read

“1) The motion on the order of the day for the second reading of a bill is that the bill be now read a second time.

2) The member in charge of a bill may also move a motion that the amendments to the bill to be considered by the House is the version put forward by a specific member of the select committee”

That SO306(1) be amended to read

“If the member has moved that the amendments to be considered are not those from the majority of the committee, thenAt the conclusion of the debate on the second reading of a bill, the Speaker puts a question that the amendments either the committee by majority be agreed to. There is no amendment or further debate on the question.