Chapter 10 - Debate
Questions
of order
In accordance with
the President’s responsibility to maintain order in
the Senate (SO 184(1)), the President rules
on questions of order and applies and interprets the standing orders and rules
and practices of the Senate. This responsibility is not confined to occasions
when questions of order are raised by senators in accordance with standing
order 197; the chair may
draw attention to a question of order and rule on it without awaiting a point
of order by a senator.
The President may
hear argument on a question of order and may determine
it at once or at a later time (SO 197(5)).
A ruling by the President on a question of order must be complied with.
It is the equivalent of an order of the Senate unless and until it is dissented
from or altered by the Senate (rulings of President Baker, SD, 4/10/1906, p. 6089; of President Gould, 18/10/1907, p. 4909).
A point of order
raised by a senator must not be used to make a debating point but should relate
to some question of order (rulings of President Givens, SD, 8/7/1915,
p. 4700, 19/8/1915, p. 5871, 25/9/1917, p. 2632, 19/6/1924, p.
1399; of President Sibraa, 2/12/1991, p. 3742). The chair does not deal
with hypothetical points of order or points which have already been determined
(rulings of President Baker, SD, 1/10/1906, p. 5765, 28/9/1906, p. 5646).
In committee of the
whole the Chair of Committees has the same
authority to make rulings as the President in the Senate (SO 144(7)).
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