2016-08-30
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — I am pleased to speak on this motion. There is not a lot of time available for the debate, so I will not go over all of the points made by the mover of the motion, Ms Wooldridge, except to say that the matter has been discussed widely in the chamber and in the Procedure Committee, which has failed to deal with it as well as a large number of other items that are on the agenda of the Procedure Committee.
I acknowledge the points that Ms Symes made about the changes the government has made in terms of committees, in terms of questions and introducing constituency questions. They are all good things, but it does not mean we should stop there. This chamber is in charge of its own destiny in terms of the standing orders, so I think it is appropriate, if the Procedure Committee is not able to meet and report on the recommendation to the Council, that we pick out the most important ones.
These are two of many things that are on the agenda of the Procedure Committee that are important. One is to institute family-friendly hours in the Council. I will not go over what Ms Wooldridge has said. People can look at how many times we have gone past midnight, but I would say that that was a feature of the previous government too, so it has a long and sorry history.
In terms of the staff, there may be differing views amongst the staff. I know when we do stay here till midnight I get a lot of complaints from staff members, but other staff members may have different views on that. Nevertheless, we are in charge of our destiny in this regard.
There has been a long history with regard to time limits in general business. I have generally been in favour of not having time limits. The strict time limits set out in the motion represent the time limits that already exists for government business, so it is good to use the same formula. I was in favour of having no time limits in general business where, for example, speakers on private members bills and motions might want to go a little bit past the 15 minutes if they were particularly interested in an issue. This would allow people to go for 20 minutes, but it would also allow people to go for 2 hours and 3 hours and longer, and that really has — —
An honourable member — They were special cases.
Ms PENNICUIK — They were special cases. That has led people mainly to come back to the idea of using the same time limits that apply to government business. With those few words, the Greens will support the motion.
Motion agreed to.