House of Representatives Practice, 6th edition – HTML version

Appendix 22 - Proportion of house time by category of business – recent parliaments

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	38th Parliament			39th Parliament			40th Parliament			41st Parliament			42nd Parliament		43rd Parliament
	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Legislation
Government sponsored
	48.0	53.8	49.8	54.2	54.9	52.0	51.5	50.7	56.8	58.0	50.4	58.6	53.9	61.3	48.8	50.5
Sponsored by Private Members
	0.9	0.2	0.5	0.4	0.5	0.9	0.2	0.3	0.1	1.3	7.1	0.2	0.1	0.1	1.3	2.6
Total
	48.9	54.1	50.4	54.5	55.3	52.9	51.7	51.0	56.9	59.3	57.5	58.8	53.9	61.4	50.1	53.0
Motions
Government Initiated
	2.4	2.2	1.3	3.7	1.7	5.0	4.4	7.9	2.0	1.2	1.5	0.8	2.4	0.7	3.3	0.7
Initated by Private Members
	5.0	4.7	6.5	6.4	5.1	3.5	4.7	5.1	3.0	4.2	5.6	3.7	2.1	1.1	3.4	3.5
Total
	7.5	6.9	7.8	10.1	6.9	8.4	9.1	13.0	4.9	5.3	7.1	4.5	4.5	1.9	6.6	4.2
Statements
Ministerial statements
	1.7	1.6	0.7	0.8	0.5	0.3	0.5	0.7	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.1	3.6	2.9	2.9	2.3
Statements by Private Members
	0.8	1.0	0.7	1.0	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.7	0.5	1.0	0.6	0.5	–	0.1	0.7	1.9
Total
	2.4	2.6	1.4	1.8	1.2	0.9	1.0	1.4	0.7	1.2	0.8	0.6	3.7	2.9	3.6	4.1
Matters of public importance
	5.5	6.5	5.5	5.8	6.5	6.2	6.1	5.7	7.6	7.6	7.5	8.8	6.6	6.3	7.8	8.8
Adjournment debates
	4.6	5.2	5.6	5.1	5.1	5.4	4.9	4.8	4.8	5.0	5.0	5.2	4.3	4.0	5.8	6.7
Grievance debates*
	3.0	3.5	3.0	3.6	3.0	3.0	2.8	3.0	2.6	2.8	2.8	2.4	–	–	–	–
Address in reply**
	3.3	–	3.4	–	–	–	2.5	–	3.1	–	–	–	3.7	–	4.0	–
Motions to suspend standing orders
Government initiated
	1.8	0.3	0.7	0.4	0.2	0.0	0.4	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.5	0.5	0.3	0.4	1.1
Initiated by Private Members
	1.7	1.7	0.6	0.7	1.0	1.3	1.5	1.8	0.7	2.2	1.8	0.6	2.0	1.4	1.3	3.1
Total
	3.5	2.0	1.3	1.1	1.2	1.3	1.9	2.1	0.9	2.4	2.2	1.1	2.5	1.7	1.7	4.2
Business of the House***
	21.3	19.2	21.6	18.1	20.9	21.8	20.0	18.9	18.5	16.2	17.1	18.6	20.8	21.9	20.3	19.0

* Since 2008 grievance debates have taken place in the Federation Chamber.

** The Address in Reply tales place at the start of each Parliament.

*** For items included in this category ‘Business of the House’ see Appendix 23.

Figures are percentages of House time and do not include proceedings in the Federation Chamber. Discrepancies in totals are due to rounding.

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