Chapter 19 - Relations with the executive government
Motions to take note of answers
A motion may be moved without notice or leave at the conclusion of
question time to take note of answers (SO 72(4)). A motion
may relate to one or more of any answers given that day and a senator may speak
for not more than five minutes on it. The total time for debate on all such
motions on any day must not exceed 30 minutes, not including any time taken in
raising and determining any points of order during the debate. (See statements
by President Beahan, SD, 1/3/1994, p. 1163; SD, 7/6/1995, p. 925.) Motions
to take note of answers provide the Senate with an opportunity to debate
answers which are regarded as unsatisfactory or which raise issues requiring
debate.
A relevant amendment may be moved to a motion to take note of an
answer, but an amendment to take note of a different answer is not a relevant
amendment (ruling of Deputy President West, 24/3/1998, SD pp 1152-3).
The history of this procedure is as follows. During 1992 the Opposition
began to make increasing use of the device of moving by leave after question
time motions to take note of answers given by ministers. On 14 September 1992 an attempt was
made by the government to limit the time spent on motions to take note of
answers to questions, by making the granting of leave for moving such motions
conditional on the senator seeking the leave speaking for only two minutes.
This condition was refused, and leave to move a motion was refused, but this
resulted in a motion to suspend standing orders, on which senators can speak
for five minutes with a total time limit of 30 minutes. After one such
suspension motion was disposed of, leave was granted to move three further
motions to take note of answers.
On the following day, 15 September 1992, the Manager of Government Business moved a special
motion (J.2760-1) to limit debate on motions to take note of answers to two
minutes per speaker and a total of 30 minutes. This motion was agreed to, with
an amendment to extend the speaking time to four minutes, on 16 September 1992 (J.2775-7). This
motion was expressed to operate for the remainder of the week. It appeared to
have had the effect of increasing the number of motions to take note of
answers, three such motions being moved on 16 September and five on 17
September. These procedures were agreed to again (J.2817-9; J.2931) for the two
sitting weeks in October and the first two sitting weeks of November. On 24 November 1992 (J.3076) the procedures,
together with those concerning time limits to questions and answers at question
time (see above) were renewed as sessional orders, and in February 1997
incorporated into the standing orders.
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