Chapter 1 - The opening of Parliament

SO1

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, p.3.

2. 10/6/1903, SD, pp.662–69.

3. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report on Proposed Standing Orders, PP No. S.3/1903, tabled 23/7/1903, p.3; 12/8/1903, J.119, SD, pp.3430–32.

4. 9/9/1909, J.119, SD, p.3202

5. On the reason for the proviso, see remarks of Senator Clemons (FT, Tas), 9/9/1909, SD, p.3203.

6. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.1/1914, tabled 10/6/1914.

7. 11/6/1914, SD, p.1998. As an example, copies of correspondence in the Department of the Senate’s Letterpress Book 1903–08 include letters from E.G. Blackmore to Captain Steward, Official Secretary to the Governor-General, regarding Tasmania’s request to have the writs back. Blackmore insisted that the Senate needed a permanent record and archive, whether it was the writ or the certificate, but that he would check with the President; letters dated 23 and 27/2/1907, folios 515 and 518–19.

8. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965; 2/12/1965, J.427.

9. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure, Procedures for the Opening of Parliament, PP No. 159/1995; Balancing Tradition and Progress: Procedures for the Opening of Parliament, PP No. 165/2001; Re-opening the debate: Review of arrangements for the Opening Day of Parliament, PP No. 489/2008.

10. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.184–85.

11. 8/2/2005, J.323, SD, pp.88–89.

12. Procedure Committee, First report of 2010, PP No. 81/2010; Second report of 2010, PP No. 131/2010; 23/6/2010, J.3671, SD pp.4065–71.

13. 23/6/2010, VP.1897 (also see House of Representatives Procedure Committee, Re-opening the Debate: Review of arrangements for the Opening Day of Parliament, PP No. 489/2008).

SO2

1. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.3/1934, tabled 31/7/1934.

SO3

1. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.1/1908, tabled 15/10/1908; adopted 9–10/9/1909, J.119–22, 125–26; SD, pp.3202–30, 3306–20.

2. “Formal Business” was listed in old SO 14 to include motions fixing the days and hours of meeting, the appointment of standing committees and any motion under SO 166(1).

3. The phrase is Senator Clemons’ (FT, Tas), 9/9/1909, SD, p.3203.

4. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.1/1937, tabled 26/8/1937.

5. For commentary on this practice see Harry Evans, “The traditional, the quaint and the useful: pitfalls of reforming parliamentary procedures”, 35th Presiding Officers’ and Clerks’ Conference, Melbourne, July 2004.

6. Goatskin parchment, like vellum, is a description of a type of paper and has no reference to any animal product.

SO4

1. See Introduction, p.14 for an account of some of the preparations for the visit.

2. Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.232–35.

3. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.2/1953, tabled 16/10/1953.

Chapter 2 - Office of the President

SO5

1. 10/5/1901, J.7; 23/5/1901, J.13.

2. J.179, PP No. L.7/1901.

3. No President has been removed by a vote of the Senate and only three have resigned: Presidents McClelland (21/4/1983–23/1/1987), Sibraa (17/2/1987–31/1/1994) and Calvert (19/8/2002–14/8/2007), the first two to take up diplomatic appointments and the third to retire from public life. See Appendix 2.

4. 10/6/1903, SD, pp.668–69.

5. 10/6/1903, SD, p.671, J.16; for the debate generally, see SD, pp. 662–71. It was probably after this debate that Blackmore wrote to several eminent British authorities seeking their views on this issue and on the validity of special majority voting requirements in view of s.23 of the Constitution (see SO 144 for details on the latter). James Bryce, author of The American Commonwealth (1888), A.V. Dicey, author of An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885), Sir Courtenay Ilbert, Clerk of the House of Commons, and Sir William Anson, author of The Law and Custom of the Constitution (1886–1892) had differing views on the term of office of President. Although the replies would have been received too late to influence the outcome, they cast an interesting light on the debate and raise the very issues that the senators thrashed out independently. The letters are reproduced in full in Appendix 13.

6. 13/8/1903, J.123, SD, p.3510.

7. 2/3/1904, J.3.

8. Minutes of the Standing Orders Committee, 11/7/1907.

9. 15/10/1908, J.45; PP No. S.1/1908.

10. 9/9/1909, J.120, SD, p.3204.

11. 10/9/1909, J.126.

12. First Report, PP No. S.2/1922; 4/10/1922, J.105; 5/10/1922, J.107, SD. P.3199.

13. Senator Sir Richard Baker, 10/6/1903, SD, p.664; although note that Baker was referring specifically to the term “new Parliament”. It was Senator Clemons (FT, Tas) who specifically suggested using “Senate” instead of “Parliament” but O’Connor rebuffed him; 13/8/1903, SD, p.3515.

14. President Givens, in respect of his re-election as President on 1/7/1920, J.96; and President Brown, in respect of his re-elections as President on 17/7/1944, J.3, and 6/7/1950, J.111.

15. 1938 MS, entry for SO 15. This had been contemplated in the 1903 debates as well; 13/8/1903, SD, p.3513.

16. 13/8/1903, SD, pp.3513, 3515–19.

17. Procedure Committee, Third Report of 1992, PP No. 510/1992, pp.8–9.

18. ibid., pp.9–10.

19. J.91 and 96–100.

20. Procedure Committee, Third Report of 1992, PP No. 510/1992, p.10.

21. Tabled on 20/8/1996, J.5.

22. 10/11/1998, J.4–6; 12/2/2002, J.4–7. In 2008, for example, following his election, President Hogg was issued with a commission by Governor-General Jeffery on 26/8/2008, J.675. On her appointment two weeks later, Governor-General Bryce issued a fresh commission to President Hogg on 15/9/2008; tabled 16/9/2008, J.855.

23. Recent examples include: President Cormack (Lib) (elected 17/8/1971 and remained President after the ALP won government in December 1972, until the April 1974 double dissolution); President Beahan (ALP) (elected 1/2/1994 and continued to serve as President until August 1996, after his term as a senator expired and after the Coalition won government in March 1996); and President Ferguson (Lib) (elected 14/8/2007 and continued to serve as President until his term expired in August 2008 after the ALP won government in November 2007). For a recent expression of the convention, see remarks by Senators Evans (ALP, WA) and Minchin (Lib, SA) on the election of President Hogg; 26/8/2008, SD, p.3633.

SO6

1. See marginal notes to SO 17 and 18 and the explanation of the marginal notes, Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, pp.3, 5.

2. 10/6/1903, SD, p.671.

3. 10/6/1903, SD, p.671. The recommittal did not eventuate.

4. As above, see marginal note to SO 19, p.5.

5. First Report , PP No. S.2/1922; tabled 4/10/1922, J.105; adopted 5/10/1922, J.107.

6. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for Sixtieth Session, PP No. 360/1981; adopted 26/11/1981, J.716–17.

7. So described in the annotation to SO 17 in the 1938 MS.

8. J.3–4 and subsequent elections up to and including 31/8/1932, J.115–16. The standard formulation was “Thereupon, Senator X, addressing the Clerk by name (who, standing up, pointed to him and then sat down), moved ...”. The 1938 MS reports that “At the election of President on 23rd September, 1935, the Acting Clerk [Broinowski] called each Senator by name, as he rose to speak, and the proceedings passed off without a hitch” (notes to SO 17).

9. 31/8/1932, J.115–16, SD, pp.3–7; entry on Monahan in Volume 2, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, op. cit..

10. 8/9/1932, J.127; Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.3/1934, adopted, 1/8/1934, J.459–61, SD, pp.967–71.

11. 1/8/1934, SD, pp.967–68, 970–71.

12. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.141.

13. 14/8/2007, SD, p.1.

14. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (1), under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.2.

15. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment A.(1), pp.1,2.

16. This formulation replaced the traditional reminder by the Leader of the Government that the time had come for the Senate to choose a new President/Deputy President, and was first used at the election of President Ferguson (Lib, SA), 14/8/2007, J.4185. See 9/8/2005, J.861–62, for an example of the traditional formulation.

17. See Appendix 2.

SO7

1. J.3–4, SD, pp.9–14.

2. House of Commons practice until recently involved a motion proposing a member to be Speaker; if there were multiple candidates, each candidate was proposed by way of an amendment to the motion. See Erskine May’s Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament, 23rd edition, ed Sir William McKay, LexisNexis UK, p. 280n. Election now takes place by secret ballot.

3. Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, pp. xvii and 5–6.

4. J.16, SD, p.672.

5. J.83.

6. 25/11/1908, SD, p.2158; also see Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.142.

7. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for Sixtieth Session, PP No. 360/1981, adopted 26/11/1981, J.716–17.

SO8

1. 9/5/1901, J.4.

2. The text of SOs 23, 24 and 25 (precursors of SO 8), as proposed by the Standing Orders Committee, is as follows (including marginal notes contained in the report):
        23.  Having been conducted to the Chair, the Senator so elected, standing on the upper step, shall return his acknowledgements to the Senate for the honour conferred upon him, and assume the Chair.
[Origin: Victorian Legislative Council SO 34 and South Australian Legislative Assembly SO 14]
        24.  A Senator having congratulated the President elect, a Minister of the Crown shall inform the Senate at what hour the Governor-General will be pleased to receive the Senate for the purpose of presenting their President, and the sitting of the Senate shall then be suspended until that hour, unless the Governor-General is prepared to receive the Senate at once.
[Origin: South Australian Legislative Assembly SO 15]
        25.  Before proceeding to any business, the President, with such Senators as desire to accompany him, shall present himself to His Excellency the Governor-General as the choice of the Senate. He shall, in the name and on behalf of the Senate, claim the right of free and direct access and communication with His Excellency. (text shown in italics was omitted from the final version)
[Origin: Victorian Legislative Council SO 35, and see South Australian
 Legislative Assembly SO 16 – an alteration to the adopted practice]
See Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, p.6.

3. 10/6/1903, SD, pp.672–73.

4. See Senator Playford’s (Prot, SA) paraphrase of Senator Higgs’ views; 10/6/1903, SD, p.673.

5. 10/6/1903, SD, p.673.

6. See note 205 above.

7. See Harry Evans, “The traditional, the quaint and the useful: pitfalls of reforming parliamentary procedures”, 35th Presiding Officers’ and Clerks’ Conference, Melbourne, July 2004.

Chapter 3 - Deputy President and Chairman of Committees

SO9

1. 6/6/1901, J.25.

2. 13/6/1901, SD, pp.1064–1070.

3. 20/6/1901, J.41.

4. 26/6/1901, J.49; SD, pp.1568–1578; 28/6/1901, J.55.

5.10/6/1903, J.16; SD, pp.656, 674–75; 18/8/1903, J.130, SD, pp.3723–24.

6. A session is a period of time beginning with an opening of Parliament by the Governor-General and ending with a prorogation of the Parliament, or a dissolution or expiration of the House of Representatives. There may be more than one session in a Parliament but this is now rare. See the section, “Chronology of Parliaments” in any edition of the Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia.

7. A general election was held on 16/12/1922 (with the new Senate term to begin on 1/7/1923). The first session of the 9th Parliament opened on 28/2/1923 and was prorogued on 21 March (and further prorogued on 16 May). The second session opened on 13 June without any election for Chairman of Committees and there is no suggestion that there should have been one. Senator Bakhap (Lib, Tas) continued in the post, having been elected to it in July 1920. The swearing-in of senators and election of President occurred on 4/7/1923 and Senator Newlands (Nat, SA) was elected Chairman of Committees the next day; 5/7/1923, J.17.

8. Adopted 1/8/1934, J.460, SD, p.970, to take effect from 1/10/1934.

9. 20/8/1981, J.440–41, SD, pp.166–78; 18/8/1981, J.416. An election for Chairman of Committees proceeded immediately after the defeat of the motion on 20/8/1981 and, for the first time, a senator from the main opposition party (Senator Doug McClelland, ALP NSW) was elected. Thus began the relatively recent – and not entirely consistent – convention that the Deputy President is a nominee of the main opposition party. See Appendix 3.

10. First Report of Sixtieth Session, PP No. 361/1981, tabled 26/11/1981; adopted 22/10/1981, J. 589–90; SD, pp.1556–58.

11. First Report of 1992, PP 527/1992; adopted 6/5/1993, J.100.

SO10

1. 10/6/1903, J.16, SD, p.675.

2. Senate Notice Paper, 16/3/1904.

3. 16/3/1904, SD, p.552.

4. 25/11/1908, J.84.

5. 1/7/1926, J.132.

SO12

1. Standing order 31 as originally proposed and with the amendment moved by President Baker shown thus was as follows:
The Chairman of Committees shall take the Chair as Deputy-President whenever requested so to do by the President during a sitting of the Senate, without any formal communication to the Senate; and the President shall nominate at the commencement of every Session a panel of not less than two Senators who may act as temporary Chairmen of Committees when requested so to do by the Chairman of Committees or when the Chairman of Committees is absent. 10/06/1903, SD, p.676.

2. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No.244/1965, tabled 25/11/1965, p.5; considered in committee of the whole and adopted 2/12/1965, with effect from 1/1/1966, J.427, SD, p.2034.

3. Examples of reports of the receipt of resignations include 27/9/1938, J.87; 18/11/1938, J.127; 21/11/1941, J.143; 11/8/1964, J.102. Before it became standard practice to revoke an appointment, the practice was for the President to issue a warrant withdrawing a senator, at his or request, from the panel. Examples include 17/3/1982, J.798; 16/5/1985, J.259; 27/11/1985, J.627; 16/9/1986, J.1195–96; 24/2/1987, J.1645; 1/12/1988, J.1223; and 14/6/1989, J.1871.

4. Rulings of President Givens, 24/6/1915, SD, p.4312 and 18/4/1918, SD, p.4021.

5. Senator Dorothy Tangney (ALP, WA) was the first woman appointed as a temporary chairman of committees (on 15/3/1962, J.35) and thus the first woman to chair the Senate. The appropriate form of address for a female temporary chair (Madam Acting Deputy President or Madam Chair in committee) was still causing confusion in 1986 when Senator Townley (Lib, Tas) stumbled over addressing the Chair, Senator Ruth Coleman (ALP, WA), who famously retorted, “I have no sex in this position”. See Ann Millar, Trust the Women: Women in the Federal Parliament, Department of the Senate, Canberra, 1994, pp.109–10.

Chapter 4 - Absence of President, Deputy President and officers

SO13

1. For temporary absences, see 25/5/1982, J.951; 28/4/1992, J.2185; 28/11/1994, J.2531. For longer absences, see 19/5/1988, J.728. 9/6/1994, J.1791; 28/5/1996, J.236; 23/6/1997, J.2160; 17/8/2000, J.3099; 30/11/2006, J.3131.

2. First Report for the Sixtieth Session, PP No. 361/1981, adopted 22/10/1981, J.589–90.

SO14

1. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (2) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.2.

2. The original second sentence was as follows: “Otherwise, the Senate stands adjourned to the next sitting day”.

3. See, for example, 8/11/1985, J.567; 5/10/1993, J.562–63.

SO15

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, pp.6–7. See marginal notes to SO 31.

2. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965, tabled 25/11/1965, p.5; adopted 2/12/1965, J.427, SD, p.2034.

SO16

1. Reid and Forrest, op. cit., p.417. The Deputy Clerk’s position was created by the redesignation of the position of Clerk Assistant which had been second in charge after the Clerk. However, a new position of Clerk Assistant was also created. See the list of officers of the Senate at 14/9/1965, J.333 and Appendix 4. The 1965 amendment added the words shown in italics:
In the case of unavoidable absence or illness of the Clerk, his duties shall be performed by the Clerk-Assistant Deputy Clerk, or, should the latter be absent, by the Clerk-Assistant.
Recommended in the committee’s Report, PP No. 244/1965, tabled 25/11/1965, adopted 2/12/1965, J.427, SD, p.2034.

Chapter 5 - Standing and Select Committees

Standing Committees

SO17

1. 5/6/1901, J.22–23, SD, pp.653–87.

2. 23/5/1901, J.13; see Introduction for an account of the work of the committee and the adoption of permanent standing orders.

3. An amendment to reduce the membership to eight was withdrawn; see 10/6/1903, SD, pp.676–77.

4. 22/3/1972, J.919; for the debate, see 19/8/1971, SD, pp.202–04. See Appendix 5 for members of the committee who have been representatives of minority groups.

5. See Appendix 5.

6. Adopted 22/10/1981, J.589, SD, p.1556.

7. 9/10/1987, J.162.

8. J.96.

9. Joint Committee on the Parliamentary Committee System, A New Parliamentary Committee System: Report, PP No. 128/1976, p.71.

10. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (3) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.2.

11. Adopted 24/8/1994, J.2052, SD, pp.166–92.

12. This has not always been the case. See Appendix 3.

13. See, for example, comments by Senator Faulkner (ALP, NSW) during debate on the conduct of Question Time, on 24/10/1995, SD, p.2348.

14. See SOs 24A, 55 and 57 for details.

15. 22/6/2006, J.2345, SD, p.53.

SO18

1. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965, tabled 25/11/1965, J.414; adopted 2/12/1965, J.427. For background on the establishment of the committee see Committee of Privileges, 125th Report: Parliamentary Privilege – Precedents, procedures and practice in the Australian Senate 1966–2005, PP No. 3/2006, pp.2–5.

2. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), p.1.

3. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1994, PP No. 146/1994, adopted 24/8/1994, J.2052.

SO19

1. At that time, there were three such departments: the Joint House Department, the Department of the Parliamentary Library and the Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff. The three departments were amalgamated into the Department of Parliamentary Services by resolution of both Houses in 2003. The committee’s 39th and 40th reports (PP Nos. 125/2003 and 125/2004) examine the amalgamation.

2. Select Committee on Parliament’s Appropriations and Staffing, Report, PP No. 151/1981, pp.18–19, 21.

3. 16/5/2013, J.3968.

SO20

1. J.25–26.

2. See remarks of Senator Drake (Prot, Qld) on 10/6/1903, SD, p.677.

3. 10/12/1929, J.27, SD, p.873–74; 11/12/1929, VP.80; 12/12/1929, VP.81, J.31.

4. Select Committee on Senate Officials, PP No. S.1/1920–21; evidence, p.1 (J.549 of 1920–21).

5. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (3) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.1.

6. Resolution of appointment agreed to as a formal motion on 7/12/2005, J.1717–19; message from the House of Representatives agreeing to the resolution, reported 8/12/2005, J.1754.

SO21

1. President Kingsmill chaired the Joint House Committee and was a member of the Joint Library Committee. See his statement on the House Committee on 10/12/1929, J.27, SD, p.873.

2. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (3) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.1.

3. 12/11/2002, SD, p.6097.

4. Examples of earlier reports include Provision of Staff and other Facilities for Members of Parliament, PP No. 34/1972, tabled 9/5/1972, J.969; Senators’ dress in the Senate Chamber, PP No. 235/1971, tabled 2/12/1971, J.828, adopted 29/2/1972, J.885; Report on its Inquiry into the Joint House Department, PP No. 163/1982, tabled 26/8/1982, J.1030; Interim Report on the Inquiry into Matters Raised Following the Publication of its Report on the Joint House Department, PP No. 6/1983, tabled 17/5/1983, J.93. The committee received a reference on the future treatment and use of Old Parliament House on 19/10/1994, J.2323, but did not complete the inquiry before the change of government in 1996. A proposed reference on the poisoning of bogong moths and its impact on birdlife in the grounds of Parliament House was negatived on 29/10/2003, J.2642.

5. 25/11/1981, J.689–90.

SO22

1. J.25–26. Library and House Committees were also established. See SOs 20 and 21.

2. 10/6/1903, SD, p.677.

3. J.35.

4. 26/7/1906, SD, pp.1848–51.

5. 1938 MS, notes on SO 36.

6. Since 1994 when the routine of business was amended to provide a timeslot of up to an hour on Wednesdays and Thursdays for committee reports to be presented and for motions in relation to them to be moved (i.e., without notice), Publications Committee reports have usually been presented in this timeslot on Thursday mornings and leave is therefore not required for the adoption motion to be moved. See standing order 62(4). If the report were to be presented at another time, however, leave would be required because the motion would otherwise require notice.

7. 6/9/1917, J.84; 7/9/1917, J.88.

8. 5/12/1962, J.200–01.

9. 13/5/1964, J.75. A government response to the recommendations was presented to the House of Representatives on 25/8/1966, VP.629, but not to the Senate. A statement on Government Publishing Policy was also made on 21/11/1968, VP.312–13, in which the Treasurer indicated that he would be seeking the views of the Presiding Officers on how continuing parliamentary review of Commonwealth publishing and printing could best be achieved.

10. 12/6/1970, SD, pp.2409–10. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 85/1970; tabled 3/6/1970, J.145.

11. Parliamentary Joint Committee on Publications, Inquiry into the development of a digital repository and electronic distribution of the Parliamentary Papers Series, PP No. 160/2010.

12. The following self-evident proviso, already covered substantively elsewhere, was also removed in the revision:
Provided that when a Paper has been laid on the Table, a Motion may be made at any time,without notice, that the Paper be printed.

SO22A

1. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.136–37.Earlier reports include the report of the Joint Committee on Pecuniary Interests of Members of Parliament, PP No. 182/1975; Public Duty and private Interest, Report of the Committee of Inquiry, PP No. 353/1979; Standing Orders Committee, Third Report of the Sixty–first Session, PP No. 112/1984; and Third Report of Sixty–second Session, PP No.435/1986. For a ministerial statement on the package of accountability measures, see 3/3/1994, SD, pp.1453–54, which followed debate on a proposed select committee on “Certain Government Accountability Matters”, namely the community grants program, pp.1417–53. The resolutions were agreed to and the Committee of Senators Interests established on 17/3/1994, J.421.

2. 17/3/1994, J.1425–27, SD, pp.1791–99. Despite this declaration, there have been no subsequent changes to the original membership formula.

SO23

1. See Introduction, under Fourth edition – 1937; also see Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.456–58 for a brief background account and reference to more detailed sources on the committee’s functions and operations. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th edition, chapter XIX generally and pp.702–12 in particular for a more detailed account of the committee’s operations to the mid–1980s.

2. PP No. S.1/1929–30, paragraph 23.

3. By this time, Papua New Guinea had attained independence (in 1975) and reference to the former territory in SO 36A was quietly altered and then dropped by clerical amendment as follows: 1966 edition: “the Northern Territory and of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea”; 1972 edition: “the Northern Territory and of the Territory of Papua New Guinea”; 1977 edition: “the Northern Territory”.

4. Standing Orders Committee, Fourth Report for Fifty–ninth Session, PP No. 70/1979; tabled 2/5/1979; adopted 23/8/1979, J.883–84.

5. (2) The Committee shall consist of seven Senators chosen in the following manner:–
(a) The Leader of the Government in the Senate shall, within four sitting days after the commencement of the Session, nominate, in writing, addressed to the President, four Senators to be members of the Committee.
(b) The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate shall, within four sitting days after the commencement of the Session, nominate, in writing, addressed to the President, three Senators to be members of the Committee.

6. See Introduction, p.12. After the result of the division to suspend him had been announced, Senator Rae left with this parting shot: “It is an honour to leave such a lot of rotters. We shall have a new Chairman of Committees next session”. [a not very subtle accusation of bias against the current Chairman, Senator Plain] 4/3/1932, SD, p.654.

7. 17/3/1932, J.51. Edwards reports that the membership formula was not followed in 1935–36 after Senator Collings (FLP, Qld) became Leader of the Opposition. With only three opposition senators, Senator Collings asked to be excused from the committee and, having consulted beforehand, suggested that a government senator take his place. He was discharged from the committee 1/10/1935 (having been appointed on 26/9/1935) and replaced by Senator Cooper (Nat, Qld), meaning that there were five government and two opposition senators on the committee. 1/10/1935, J.95.

8. 1/9/1937, J.44. “Any vacancy arising in the committee shall be filled after the Leader of the Government or the Leader of the Opposition, as the case may be, has nominated, in writing addressed to the President, some Senator to fill the vacancy”.

9. PP No. S.1/1938, tabled 23/6/1938, J.53.

10. The offer was made at the end of 1940 and the committee’s minutes include the correspondence from Senator McLeay (UAP, SA), Leader of the Government in the Senate and former Chairman, and the committee’s reply indicating that it preferred the status quo to assistance from within the public service. The committee was briefed by the Clerk in March 1944 on the continuing need for legal assistance and learned in December that year that ₤250 had been included in the department’s estimates for that purpose. Former Senator J.A. Spicer, also a former Chairman, was appointed as adviser from 1/1/1945. Some of these matters are also covered in the committee’s Sixth Report, PP No. S.1/1947, tabled 30/4/1947, J.53.

11. 28/9/1932, SD, pp.788–89.

12. 22/9/1987, J.96.

13. For an exception to this practice see 7/5/1971, J.582; the Senate authorised the committee to meet on Norfolk Island during the forthcoming adjournment of the Senate.

SO24

1. The change in numbering in 1989 led the then chair, Senator Cooney (ALP, Vic) to quip, “Our AAA rating has since been taken away …”, in Ten Years of Scrutiny – a seminar to mark the tenth anniversary of the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, 25 November 1991, p.15.

2. For example, The Work of the Committee during the 40th Parliament, February 2002 – August 2004, PP No. 277/2008; The Work of the Committee during the 41st Parliament, November 2004 – October 2007, PP No. 339/2008.

3. 25/11/1981, J.675–77. For an explanation of the then government's opposition to the committee, which was to turn to support after a successful trial, see the government response to the committee’s Ninth Report, 26/10/1982, SD, pp.1798–99.

4. Compare the ten paragraphs in the original resolution of 19/11/1981 (J.675–77) with the 21 paragraphs in the resolution of 25/5/1982 (J.954–55).

5. First Report for the Sixty-first Session, PP No. 111/1983; tabled 6/10/1983, J.328; debated 1/3/1984, J.687–90, SD, pp.271–83 and 6/9/1984, J.1083–87, SD, pp.617–22.

SO24A

1. The times of sitting and routine of business were the ostensible sticking point, along with changes to the cut-off procedures for legislation, but the most contentious issue was the allocation of questions at Question Time, an issue not covered, and not intended to be covered, by sessional or other order. See 1/5/1996, SD, pp.104–16.

2. See Appendix 4 of the select committee’s report, PP No. 398/1988, pp.42–48.

3. The new government’s proposed sessional orders in 1996 included a minor amendment to provide for reports to be presented on any day after “consideration of formal motions” (that is, discovery of formal business). These proposed orders never came into effect.

4. During the 41st and 42nd Parliaments, Senator Fielding (FFP, Vic), the single representative of the Family First Party, informed the chamber that he was the party leader and whip. He was styled as leader in official records such as the Journals and Notice Paper and listed as a member of the Selection of Bills Committee. In the mid–1990s, one of two Greens WA senators was designated as whip and participated in the committee.

SO25

1. An alternative method of dealing with actual – as opposed to possible – inconsistencies is for the relevant standing order to be suspended to the extent of the inconsistency with the proposed resolution.

2. J.254–55.

3. The Select Committee on Foreign Ownership and Control, established on 10/12/1971, J.860–61, was the first select committee appointment to include what would become the standard provision for staff etc.

4. For an early account of the staffing of committees, see R.E. Bullock, “The Australian Senate and its newly expanded committee system”, The Table, Vol. XL, 1971, pp.38–53, especially pp.50–51.

5. For background on the effect of prorogation or dissolution of the House of Representatives on the Senate and its committees, see Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.644–53.

6. 14/3/1973, J.47–49.

7. These occasions included 14/3/1974, J.56–57; 16/8/1974, J.178 (Constitutional and Legal Affairs only).

8. 17/9/1974, J.189–91, 192, SD, pp.1129–40, 1153–58.

9. 17/9/1974, J.193, SD, pp.1158–59. The House of Representatives agreed to the Senate’s amendments to the resolution appointing the Joint Committee on the Parliamentary Committee System, 18/9/1974, VP.172–73. A Proposed System of Committees for the Australian Parliament – Interim Report (incorporating sub-committee report on visit to Ottawa and Westminster), PP No. 275/1975. Final report, A New Parliamentary Committee System, PP No. 128/1976.

10. 2/3/1976, J.45–47, SD, pp.306–13, 316–25.

11. 16/3/1977, J.26–27 (and also see 15/3/1977, J.22–24); Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for Fifty–Seventh Session 1976–77, tabled 22/2/1977, PP No. 2/1977. The additional committee was not a new one, but the restored Finance and Government Operations Committee which had not been appointed in the previous Parliament. The built-in facility (“unless otherwise ordered”) had the effect of allowing changes to the names and number of committees without actually changing the standing order. There is no advantage to this and there are potential disadvantages because the standing orders may then be out of kilter with the actual state of affairs. This redundancy was removed in the 1989 revision.

12. 16/8/1978, J.302–03.

13. 22/9/1987, J.96–104, SD, pp.467–88.

14. See Introduction, p.24.

15. For details, see Consolidated Register of Senate Committee Reports (1970–2004), Department of the Senate, 2004, pp.453–55.

16. Standing Committee on Finance and Government Operations, The Timeliness and Quality of Annual Reports, PP No.468/1989, presented out of sitting on 27/6/1989 and tabled 15/8/1989, J.1930, together with a response by the President of the Senate to certain recommendations in the report.

17. For example, in 1990, only six members were appointed to Finance and Public Administration, not the usual eight, 11/5/1990, J.68–69.

18. 4/9/1991, J.1464.

19. 13/5/1993, J.148–49 150–51.

20. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1994, PP No. 146/1994; 24/8/1994, J.2049–54, SD, pp.166–92.

21. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice. 13th ed., pp.525–27.

22. See Procedure Committee, First Report of 1992, PP No. 527/1992, pp.4–5 for commentary on this issue.

23. 3/12/1998, J.262; Procedure Committee, Second report of 2002, PP No. 579/2002, adopted 19/11/2002, J.1145. The idea had been previously considered by the Procedure Committee and rejected. See Second Report of 1995, PP No. 284/1995.

24. Remuneration Tribunal Determination 2006/21: Parliamentary Office Holders – Additional Salary, 17/10/2006 [F2006L03471].

25. Procedure Committee, First Report of 2008, PP No. 334/2008, p.3.

26. Procedure Committee, First Report of 2009, PP No. 35/2009, p.1.

27. Procedure Committee, Second report of 2009, PP No. 62/2009; presented out of sitting on 16/4/2009; tabled 12/5/2009, J.1882; adopted 13/5/2009, J.1942–46. A subsequent determination of the Remuneration Tribunal removed allowances for deputy chairs: Remuneration Tribunal Determination 2009/04: Remuneration and Allowances for Holders of Public Office; and Members of Parliament – Entitlements and Office Holders Additional Salary 23/4/2009 [F2009L01579].

28. Originally recommended as a temporary order by the Procedure Committee, First Report of 2006, PP No. 149/2006, p.3, and agreed to 14/8/2006 (to take effect 11/9/2006), J.2474–76; Procedure Committee, First Report of 2009, PP No. 35/2009, adopted 10/3/2009, J.1657–58.

SO26

1. See Introduction, p.16.

2. There were two additional estimates committees for a short period in the early 1980s. Following the standard nomenclature, these were known as Estimates Committees G and H; 2/4/1981, J.185–86.

3. In 1997, a proposal to enable committees to take estimates evidence in camera, if appropriate, was referred to the Procedure Committee which did not support an amendment to SO 26 because it was considered unnecessary. Legislation committees, which conducted estimates hearings, had other terms of reference under which they could examine agencies in camera if they so chose. 18/6/1997, J.2108; Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1997, PP No. 460/1997. Also see First Report of 1995, PP No. 171/1995, pp.4–5; and Fifth Report of Fifty–second Session, PP No. 134/1972.

4. See, for example, resolutions of the Senate of 9/12/1971, J.846, 23/10/1974, J.283, 18/9/1980, J.1563, 4/6/1984, J.902–03, 26/6/1998, J.4079, all of which are published in Standing and other orders of the Senate, under Resolutions expressing opinions of the Senate; also see commentary in Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.472.

5. 14/3/1973, J.49–51.

6. For example, when the Senate was recalled during a scheduled supplementary budget estimates week to deal with an urgent anti-terrorism bill, legislation committees were authorised to continue their estimates hearings while the Senate was sitting, 3/11/2005, J.1300–01. The idea of estimates-only days had been raised by the Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts Legislation Committee. See Procedure Committee, First report of 1995, PP No. 171/1995, pp.4–6.

7. 12/12/1996, J.1281–82. The electoral cycle and change of government in 1996 resulted in there being two rounds of additional estimates in 1997.

8. See 21/10/1997, J.2656–57; 17/11/1997, J.2846–47.

9. Procedure Committee, Third Report of the Sixty–third Session, PP No. 462/1989, pp.6–8, 19–23.

10. 23/8/1990, J.237.

11. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1995, PP No. 171/1995.

12. 6/5/1993, J.91, 96–100.

13. 5/12/1989, J.2303–05. See Appendix 8 of the select committee’s report, PP No. 398/1998.

14. J.1447.

15. 6/3/1997, J.1581; 6/2/2001, J.3860.

16. 24/8/1994, J.2049–54.

17. See Procedure Committee, First Report of 1995, PP No. 171/1995. The recommendations in this report were incorporated into the committee’s First Report of 1996 (PP No. 194/1996) which recommended consolidation of the standing orders. Adopted 13/2/1997, J.1447

18. See Procedure Committee, Second report of 2009, PP No. 62/2009; presented out of sitting on 16/4/2009; tabled 12/5/2009, J.1882; adopted 13/5/2009, J.1942–46.

General Committee Provisions

SO27

1. 17/6/1903, SD, pp.984–93.

2. 17/6/1903, SD, pp.988.

3. 17/6/1903, SD, p.991. The text of the amendments was not recorded in the Journals, only the fact that they were made.

4. Adopted 13/2/1997, J.1447.

SO29

1. This standing order was deleted in the 1989 revision. It had been superseded by the universal practice of the size of committees being prescribed in their resolutions of appointment.

2. PP No. 579/2002; J.1145.

SO30

1. Procedure Committee, Second report of 1995, PP No. 284/1995.

2. PP No. 194/1996; J.1447.

SO33

1. The provision prohibiting select committees from meeting during the sitting of the Senate was adopted on 19/8/1903 as part of SO 292 (SO 288 in the first printed edition and, ultimately, in force as SO 300 immediately before the 1989 revision).

2. President Givens summed up the principle succinctly in debate on the adoption of SO 38A on 11/6/1914, SD, p.1999.

3. 17/6/1903, SD, pp.988.

4. Resolutions establishing the legislative and general purpose standing committees and estimates committees in 1970 included prohibitions on those committees meeting during sittings of the Senate except by order; 19/8/1970, J.253–54.

5. For the background to this issue, see Standing Orders Committee, Sixth Report for the Sixty–Second Session, PP No. 169/1987.

6. 22/9/1987, J.100

7. See Procedure Committee, First Report of 1994, PP No. 146/1994.

8. 28/8/2002, J.685–86.

9. Procedure Committee, First report of 2003, PP No. 102/2003; adopted 14/5/2003, J.1799.

SO34

1. See Privilege Resolution 6(13).

SO36

1. Note that standing order 25(11) at that time (subsequently revised) gave legislative and general purpose standing committees a discretion to order that a senator not participate in a public hearing or question witnesses. On this issue (now superseded), see Procedure Committee First Report of 1992, PP No. 527/1992, pp.4–5.

SO37

1. 17/6/1903, SD, p.993.

2. Standing Orders Committee, Report relating to Standing Order 308, PP No. 1/1970; adopted 7/4/1970, J.49.

3. See Privilege Resolution 6(16). Consideration of a significant number of cases of unauthorised disclosure by the Privileges Committee led it to recommend that the Senate adopt procedures requiring committees affected by unauthorised disclosures to conduct preliminary enquiries of their own and to make an assessment of potential or actual substantial interference with their work before raising a matter of privilege. The resolution was adopted on 20/6/1996, J.361. A further general report by the Privileges Committee in 2005 (122nd Report, PP No. 137/2005) led to a second resolution, adopted initially as a sessional order on 6/10/2005, J.1200–02, and as an order of continuing effect on 17/9/2007, J.4388, and providing further guidance to committees on assessing the degree of potential or actual interference. On the effect of these resolutions, see statement by the chair of the committee, Senator Faulkner (ALP, NSW), 13/9/2007, SD, p.142.

4. Procedure Committee, Third Report of the Sixty–third Session, PP No. 462/1989, see especially pp.3–4.

5. 23/8/1990, J.236–37, SD, pp.2032–36.

6. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1990, PP No. 435/1990; order of continuing effect adopted 13/2/1991, J.733–34, 737; 1997 consolidation adopted 13/2/1997, J.1447.

7. 6/9/1984, J.1086; SD, p.618.

8. 22/5/1980, J.1381.

9. PP No. 117/1983, pp.7–8.

10. Agreed to by the House of Representatives on 11/10/1984, VP.988–89. The order is reproduced in Standing Orders and other orders of the Senate, September 2006, p.120.

SO38

1. See Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901; tabled 9/10/1901, marginal note to SO 298; 17/6/1903, SD, pp.993–96

2. In its pre–1989 form, the relevant standing order (311) was as follows:
The Chairman shall read to the Committee convened for the purpose the whole of his Draft Report, which may at once be considered, but if  desired by any Senator, it shall be printed and circulated amongst the Committee and a subsequent day be fixed for its consideration; and in considering the Report the Chairman shall read it paragraph by paragraph, putting the question to the Committee at the end of each paragraph ––– “That it do stand part of the Report,” A senator objecting to any portion of the Report shall propose his Amendment at the time the paragraph he wishes to amend shall be under consideration. A protest or dissent may be added to the Report.

3. Committee of Privileges, 20th Report: Possible Unauthorised Disclosure of Senate Committee Report, PP No. 461/1989; tabled 21/12/1989, J.2445, adopted 16/5/1990, J.96–97.

4. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1990, PP No. 436/1990; 23/8/1990, J.237.

5. 13/2/1991, J.738; Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1990, PP No. 435/1990.

SO39

1. But see commentary on SO 169 for the lenient application of this principle to motions for the printing of government documents between the 1920s and the 1970s.

Chapter 6 - Journals and records of the Senate

SO43

1. Later known as the Australian Government Publishing Service or AGPS.

2. Subsection 3(2) and s.4, Parliamentary Papers Act 1908.

3. 12/5/1993, J.123. See also the explanatory memorandum tabled by the then Manager of Government Business, Senator Faulkner, when giving notice of the motion on 11/5/1993, J.113; tabled paper no. 374.

4. AGPS was privatised in the mid–1990s and parliamentary printing was contracted out, initially to the private printing firm which bought the government printing operations, under transitional arrangements.

5. Procedure Committee, Third Report of 1995, November 1995, PP No. 477/1995, p.2

SO44

1. 6/10/2005, J.1200.

Chapter 7 - Senators’ roll, attendance and places of senators

SO45

1. A newly-appointed Governor-General often issues a fresh commission to a continuing President. See SO 5.

SO46

1. 10/6/1903, SD, p.678.

2. President Gould, 9/9/1909, SD, p.3205.

3. See entry on Senator Ferguson, Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, Volume 1, op. cit., pp.89–92.

4. 9/9/1909, SD, p.3205.

SO47

1. 10/6/1903, SD, p.678.

SO48

1. Review of Standing Orders (first draft of the revised standing orders), tabled on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), p.18.

2. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment A.(2), pp.1,3.

3. 10/6/1903, SD, p.678.

4. See SO 186 for commentary on the audio technology in the chamber which reinforces this fundamental rule.

5. 18/9/1986, J.1214. At the time the resolution was agreed to, the equivalent seat on the opposition side was occupied by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. With the creation of a new position of Manager of Opposition Business after the 1996 election, the seat is now usually occupied by the senator holding that position.

Chapter 8 - Sittings, quorum and adjournment of the Senate

SO49

1. Adopted on the recommendation of the Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.1/1909.

2. 9/9/1909, SD, p.3205.

3. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.2/1922.

SO50

1. 21/5/1901, J.9.

2. 14/6/1901, J.35.

3. 14/6/1901, SD. p.1136.

4. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report, PP No. L.1/1901, adopted 26/6/1901, J.49. Prayers were first read in the House of Representatives on 14/6/1901 (see House of Representatives Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. D.1/1901, presented and adopted 13/6/1901, VP.59).

5. 26/6/1901, J.49; 27/6/1901, J.53.

6. The form of the preamble to the Lord's Prayer adopted by the House of Representatives was as follows:
Almighty God, we humbly beseech Thee at this time to vouchsafe Thy special blessing upon this Parliament, and that thou wouldst be pleased to direct and prosper all our consultations to the advancement of Thy glory, and to the true welfare of the people of Australia. (13/6/1901, VP.59)
The preamble was subsequently modernised as follows:
Almighty God, we humbly beseech Thee to vouchsafe Thy blessing upon this Parliament. Direct and prosper our deliberations to the advancement of Thy glory, and the true welfare of the people of Australia.

7. 28/10/1997, J.2734.

8. 30/10/1997, J.2773.

9. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1997, PP No. 460/1997, p.5.

10. 27/11/1997, J.3048.

11. 26/11/1997, SD, p.9518. The proposed amendments were to replace “vouchsafe” with “grant” in the preamble and “Our Father which art” with “Our Father who art” in the Lord's Prayer. For the debate generally, see SD, pp.9516–20.

12. 11/7/1998, J.4310, SD, pp.5591–601.

13. 17/8/2007, J.4253.

14. One of these agreements, Agreement for a better Parliament – Parliamentary reform, was tabled by the Speaker in the House of Representatives on 20 October 2010; V & P 99.

SO51

1. See marginal note to SO 51, Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901; tabled 9/10/1901, p.9.

2. 11/6/1914, SD, p.1999.

3. Compare SO 50(1) in the draft tabled on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), p.18:

If there is a quorum present the Chair shall be taken and prayer read at the time appointed for a meeting of the Senate; but if there is not a quorum present, and if, after the expiration of 5 minutes, the bells having been rung again for that time, there is still not a quorum present, the President shall adjourn the Senate to the next sitting day.

and SO 51(1) of the draft tabled on 1/11/1989, J.2219 (tabled paper no. 4242), p.24:

If there is not a quorum present at the time appointed for a meeting of the Senate, the bells shall be rung again for 5 minutes, and if there is still not a quorum present the President shall adjourn the Senate to the next sitting day.

4. See 29/2/1928, J.319; 1/3/1928, J.321; 2/3/1928, J.323; and 7/3/1928, SD, pp.3553–54.

5. There was one other occasion, on 19/5/1950, J.51, when a quorum could not be formed at the commencement of the sitting, an incident which led to the abandonment, for the time being, of Friday sittings. See SO 55 for the explanation.

SO52

1. See 10/6/1903, SD, pp.678–79 for the original debate on, and minor amendment of, these SOs.

2. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for Fifty-Sixth Session, November 1974, PP No. 276/1974, p.3. See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Parliament_House,_Canberra#Extensions (Accessed 23/1/2009).

3. 6/10/1989, J.2102. The notice was given 2 days after the censure motion on the count-out, referred to below.

4. 4/10/1989, J.2083–84; relevant part of resolution reproduced in Standing Orders and other orders of the Senate, September 2006, p.134.

5. 4/10/1989, SD, pp.1608–31; also see Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.275-76. Note that the debate cited includes several references to the tactic of deliberately shortening a senator's speaking time by calling a quorum. This is no longer possible following the adoption of paragraph (7).

6. Finance and Public Administration Committee, Additional Estimates, 18/2/2008, pp.6–7.

SO53

1. 18/6/1903, SD, pp.1064–67.

2. 11/9/1903, SD, p.5005.

3. 7/10/1903, J.199–200, SD, pp.5739–47.

4. 22/11/1905, J.177.

5. 6/12/1905, J.211.

6. Ruling of President Baker, 5/9/1906, SD, p.3964.

7. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment C.(11), pp.2, 4.

SO54

1. 2/2/1994, J.1170–78; also see commentary on SO 55.

2. 7/12/1998, J.287.

3. 28/8/2002, J.685–86.

4. 28/8/2002, SD, pp.3845–48. See commentary on SO 55.

5. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 2002, PP No. 579/2002; tabled 18/11/2002, J.1120.

6. 19/11/2002, J.1145; Procedure Committee, First Report of 2009, PP No. 35/2009.

Chapter 9 - Times of sittings and routine of business

SO55

1. 5/6/1901, J.22.

2. See Business of the Senate 1901–1906, Department of the Senate, 1999, pp.iv–v.

3. 25/5/1950, J.58.

4. 24/5/1950, J.53–54.

5. 19/5/1950, J.51.

6. 25/5/1950, SD, pp.3176–88.

7. Senator Chamarette (GWA, WA), 2/2/1994, SD, p.227. See also comments by Senator Poyser (ALP, Vic), 17/10/1973, SD, pp.1268–69.

8. For example, on 26/1/1950, Edwards wrote to the Secretary, Department of the Interior, as follows:

For your information in connection with any arrangements you make regarding the Canberra train service, you are advised that the Senate will meet at 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22nd February, 1950.

A similar letter went to the Secretary, Commonwealth Railways. Department of the Senate, General unregistered correspondence, 1939–53 (broken series of “pinks”), B18.

9. Australian Senate Practice, 1st ed., PP No. 230/1953, p.59.

10. 19/5/1967, J.149. Using this mechanism, the Senate was recalled on 20/6/1967 to deal with motions for the disallowance of certain regulations made under the Post and Telegraph Act. See Odgers’ Australian Practice, 13th ed., p.188 for other instances.

11. Sessional orders agreed to 22/2/1985, J.36–42; 15/9/1987, J.36–43.

12. See statements by the Leader of the Government, Senator Murphy, and Leader of the Opposition, Senator Withers (Lib, WA), 21/8/1973, SD, pp.19–20.

13. 17/10/1973, J.425, SD, pp.1264–85.

14. 28/2/1984, J.651–56.

15. 20/9/1990, J.297.

16. See, for example, 15/9/1987, J.43; 17/3/1988, J.562; 5/5/1993, J.75; 18/8/1993, J.357.

17. See, for example, 12/12/1996, J.1280; 9/11/2000, J.3533; 17/11/2004, J.45. For a variation, see 25/11/1998, J.166, in which the sitting dates for the first half of 1999 were agreed to as an amendment to the motion to establish a select committee on the proposed legislation for a goods and services tax.

18. 18/8/1993, J.357.

19. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1993, PP No. 212/1993.

SO56

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901; tabled 9/10.1901, see marginal note to SO 63, p.10.

2. 10/6/1903, SD, p.679.

3. For a list of other such powers, see Odgers’ Australian Senate practice, 13th ed., pp.583–84.

4. Blackmore’s draft standing orders included, as SO 45, the following: “A Motion, made for the purpose of fixing the next day of meeting of the Senate, may be moved at any time without notice by a Minister of the Crown”. It was not included in the draft recommended by the Standing Orders Committee.

5. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.186.

SO57

1. See sessional orders agreed to on 22/10/1981, J.589–90, 29/4/1982, J.882–83, 22/4/1983, J.34–37 (for variation to Thursdays); and 24/8/1983, J.220–23 (for variations to all sitting days). Also see SOs 61 and 62.

2. 28/2/1984, J.651–56. The eight day fortnight became seven days with the adoption of procedures for the referral of bills to committees in 1989, with effect from August 1990.

3. Senate Question Time was first televised by the ABC on 22/8/1990, pursuant to a resolution agreed by the Senate on 31/5/1990, J.192–93. See resolutions of 23/8/1990, J.234 and 18/10/1990, J.360.

4. 13/12/1991, J.739. See SO 62.

5. For a list, see Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.583–84.

6. Originally 6 pm but changed to 4.30 pm by temporary order first agreed to 11/5/2004 on the adoption of the Procedure Committee’s First Report of 2004, PP No. 82/2004, J.3379; extended on numerous occasions before permanent adoption on the recommendation of the Procedure Committee in its First Report of 2009, PP No. 35/2009, 10/3/2009, J.1658.

7. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th edition, p.282–83.

SO58

1. Contemporary examples include motions for the consideration and adoption of Procedure Committee reports. For historic examples, Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed, p.262, cites a government business notice relating to the site of the new and permanent Parliament House which the Senate agreed to deal with as business of the Senate on 3/5/1973.

2. 4/11/1910, J.182; also see 11/11/1910, J.198–200. Friday was the day for dealing with private business (later called general business – see SO 59). If a statute provided only a limited number of sitting days in which to disallow an instrument, there was a risk that the disallowance period would expire before a disallowance motion could be determined in the time available for private business on Fridays.

3. 11/11/1910, SD, pp.6013–14.

4. 16/11/1910, J.205.

5. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.2/1922; adopted 5/10/1922, J.107.

6. Not included in old SO 66A.

7. See Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.3/1934 and Second Report for 59th Session, PP No. 20/1978.

8. 20/10/1938, J.107.

9. J.254–55.

10. For example, a motion to take note of a document or ministerial statement could not be amended to refer the document etc. to a committee for inquiry and report. This position was confirmed in the report presented by the President on 16/2/1971 (as required by the resolution of 19/8/1970), Committees of the Australian Senate, PP No. 32/1971, p. 11, but it was never applied and would now be considered a restriction on the rights of senators.

11. 19/8/1970, SD, p.106.

12. 4th edition, 1972, p.136; 5th edition, 1976, p.187.

SO59

1. 5/6/1901, J.22; SD, pp. 644–52.

2. The first such occasion was on 22/8/1901, J.113.

3. This is an approximation. For detailed statistics, see Senate Statistical Summary, online at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/work/statistics.

4. Based on the recommendations of the Procedure Committee, First Report of 1996, PP No. 194/1996, adopted 13/2/1997, J.1447.

5. 14/8/1901, J.105.

SO60

1. 18/5/1932, J.95; 28/9/1932, J.136.

2. 28/9/1932, SD, pp.786–87.

3. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S. 3/1934. See 1/8/1934, SD, p.972. The justification provided by Senator McLachlan (UAP, SA) was brief and uncontested: “After the present standing orders were drafted, certain joint standing committees were brought into being. The proposed new standing order allocates the time at which such business may be dealt with”.

4. Resolution of the Senate, 14/3/1973, J.51.

5. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for 59th Session, 1978, PP No. 20/1978, pp.1–2. In this report the committee noted that there had been only one government response in the 5 years since the 1973 resolution.

6. 26/5/1978, J.186; SD, p.1933. 16/8/1978, J.303–04.

7. Standing Orders Committee, Fourth Report for Fifty–ninth Session 1978–79, PP No. 70/1979, pp.3–5. 23/8/1979, J.883–84; SD, pp.207–12.

8. Notice Paper No. 115, 7/9/1982, p.6742.

SO61

1. For example, motions to take note of answers to questions without notice which now constitute an established element of the routine of business. See SO 72 for the history of this procedure.

2. For a brief history of the presentation of annual reports to Parliament, see Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration, The Timeliness and Quality of Annual Reports, June 1989, PP No. 468/1989, pp.3–5.

3. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for Fifty–Seventh Session, PP No. 2/1977, p.3.

4. Standing Orders Committee, First Report for the Sixtieth Session, October 1981, PP No. 361/1981, p.2. The proposed sessional order is on p.7.

5. 22/10/1981, J.589–90; SD, pp.1558–62.

6. 22/4/1983, J.36.

7. 28/2/1984, J.654; re-adopted 22/2/1985, J.41–2.

8. 23/10/1986, J.1362–63; Standing Orders Committee, Fifth Report for the Sixty–Second Session, March 1987, PP No. 169/1987; sessional order amended 13/5/1987, J.1849–50; readopted as amended 15/9/1987, J.36–43

9. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1992, April 1992, PP No. 542/1992, pp.1–2. Also see First Report of 1992, March 1992, PP No. 527/1992, pp.2–3.

10. 6/5/1993, J.100, with effect till the last sitting day in May 1993; 18/8/1993, J.358, adopted as a sessional order.

11. 2/21994, J.1170–72, 1174–78.

12. 13/2/1997, J.1442–45, 1447. The main effects were the confinement of consideration of government documents to Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the ability of ministers to table government documents by handing them to the Clerk immediately after prayers on the relevant days.

13. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1997, November 1997, PP No. 460/1997, pp.2–4.

14. Procedure Committee, First Report of 2004, March 2004, PP No. 82/2004, p.2.

SO62

1. Committees of the Australian Senate, tabled by President McMullin on 16 February 1971 pursuant to resolutions of the Senate of 11 June 1970 and 19 August 1970, PP No. 32/1971.

2. 14/3/1973, J.51.

3. 15/3/1973, NP, p.141; 3/5/1973, J.143. Reports were listed in the NoticePaper on successive Thursdays. Perusal of the relevant Journals shows that motions were moved to rearrange business to bring on either urgent business or routine government business.

4. 14/3/1974, J.53.

5. Joint Committee on the Parliamentary Committee System, established September 1974; re-established March 1976. See commentary on SO 25.

6. Standing Orders Committee, Fifth Report for Fifty–ninth Session, March 1980, PP No. 50/1980, p.2. 28/4/1981, J.213–14. See Appendix 9 for dates of consideration and references to Senate Debates.

7. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report for the Sixtieth Session, April 1982, PP No. 82/1982, pp.1–2, 5; 29/4/1982, J.882–83; also see 27/4/1982, J.865–67 and SD, p.1527.

8. Re-adopted 22/4/1983, J.34–37; 24/8/1983, J.220–23 (as amended); 22/2/1985, J.36–42; 15/9/1987, J.36–43. The 1989 revision provided for SO 62 to operate on Wednesdays but this was changed to Thursdays by the operation of the orders of the Senate of 5/12/1989 for the referral of bills to committees which came into effect in August 1990.

9. 13/2/1991, J.739; 14/8/1991, J.1356; 20/8/1991, J.1392; 5/5/1993, J.68.

10. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1991, PP No. 466/1991; adopted 14/10/1991, J.1579–81.

11. Privileges Committee, 20th Report – Possible Unauthorised Disclosure of Senate Committee Report, PP No. 461/1989, p.12–15.

12. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1990, August 1990, PP No. 436/1990, p.1–2, 9.

13. 12/2/1991, J.723.

14. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1991, September 1991, PP No. 466/1991, pp.1–2; considered and recommitted 14/10/1991, J.1579–81; SD, pp.1901–10.

15. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1992, March 1992, PP No. 527/1992, pp.3–4.

16. Procedure Committee, First report of 2000, PP No. 72/2000; adopted 10/5/2000, J.2692.

SO63

1. Ruling of President Baker, 21/8/1906, SD, p.3055.

2. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.558; also see pp.205 and 521.

SO64

1. Rulings of President Baker, 23/8/1905, SD, p.1337; 13/9/1906, SD, p.4540.

2. Standing Orders Committee, Fifth Report for Fifty–ninth Session, PP No. 50/1980, p.5.

3. See 21/9/1939, J.231 for an instance of failure to obtain an absolute majority on a motion to suspend this SO.

SO65

1. 10/6/1903, SD, p.679.

2. 5/6/1901, J.22, SD, p.653.

SO66

1. 5/6/1901, J.22.

2. It had not been adopted in South Australia, for example; see remarks of President Baker, 5/6/1901, SD, p.644.

3. 5/6/1901, SD, p.644. Also see remarks by Senators Sargood (FT, Vic.) and Symon (FT, SA), and further remarks by Senator Gould (FT, NSW) on pp.645–46.

4. The name given to this procedure. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.226–27.

5. See SO 101 for the circumstances in which the division bells may be rung for one minute instead of four.

6. For example, 23/10/1997, SD, p. 7909, 27/5/1998, SD, p. 3245–49, 27/3/2003, SD, pp.10334–38 and 30/10/2003, SD, pp.17222–28.

7. See, for example, comments by Senator Harradine (Ind, Tas), 23/10/1997, SD, p.7909.

8. In the late 1990s, the then opposition stated that it would be denying formality on any foreign policy motion which did not have unanimous support on the basis that such motions should not be decided without debate. See statement by Senator Faulkner (ALP, NSW), 27/5/1998, SD, pp.3245–46.

9. Second Report of 1997, PP No. 460/1997; First Report of 1999, PP No. 57/1999; First Report of 2003, PP No. 102/2003. In contrast, the NSW Legislative Assembly from which the Senate borrowed the procedure did not include formal business in its new standing orders adopted in November 2005 “as it was considered that it was rarely used, unnecessary and sometimes delayed the bringing on of Question Time”. New South Wales Legislative Assembly Practice, Procedure and Privilege, ed. Russell Grove, Mark Swinson and Stephanie Hesford, 2007, p.120.

10. First report of 2004, PP No. 82/2004, p.2. See Attachment 3, “Formal Motions”, pp.6–12.

11. 11/5/2004, J.3379.

12. 13/5/2004, J.3415; 17/6/2004, J.3494; 24/6/2004, J.3675 and 3676.

13. 3/8/2004, J.3782; 4/8/2004, J.3814.

SO67

1. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1999, PP No. 57/1999, pp.3–4.

2. This is very rare, having occurred only twice since the revised standing order was adopted: 18/8/2003, J.2178; 19/8/2003, J.2213. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.208.

3. The form is available on the Senate's website.

SO68

1. SD, p.1999.

Chapter 10 - Petitions

SO69

1. 21/5/1901, J.9.

2. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, pp.11–12.

3. 30/10/1974, J.303.

4. Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.289.

5. 16/10/1918, SD, p.6882.

6. First Report of Fifty–sixth Session, PP No. 275/1974, adopted 20/11/1974, J.347.

7. 25/11/1982, J.1260.

8. 6/3/1997, J.1581.

9. Standing Orders Committee, Third report for the Sixtieth Session, PP No. 82/1982 and Fifth Report for the Sixtieth Session, PP No. 313/1982, adopted 25/11/1982, J.1260.

10. Report on reference of petitions requesting that Jervis Bay be deleted from consideration as a site for any expansion of Defence Department facilities including the East Coast Armaments Complex and that the national broadcaster fulfil its obligations so that all Australia, and in particular Bass Strait Islands, can receive its radio and television signals, PP No. 100/1996, tabled 21/8/1996, J.474.

11. Procedure Committee, Third Report of 1995, PP No. 477/1995.

12. 27/4/1988, SD, p.1918.

13. See comments by Senator Ray, 31/08/1993, SD, p.659.

14. 5/12/1996, J.1207.

15. PP No. 450/1993, p.2.

Chapter 11 - Questions seeking information

SO72

1. Kenneth Bradshaw, “Parliamentary Questions: a historical note”, in Parliamentary Affairs (1954, vol. 7), p.317.

2. Ibid., p.321.

3. Note that in accordance with SO 3(4) business (other than formal business) could not be transacted until after debate on the address-in-reply was finalised, and Senator Millen was directed to place his question on notice; 21/5/1901,SD, p.34.

4. By 1970, a daily average of 11 questions without notice was being asked within a question time running at just under an hour on average. Business of the Session, 27th Parliament, 2nd Session, 1970; p.1.

5. 19/8/1975, J.851–54.

6. 19/8/1975, SD, p.23.

7. 28/08/2008, SD, p.4049.

8. 28/08/2008, SD, p.4097.

9. For example, by Senator Abetz, 28/08/2008, SD, p.4097.

10. PP No. 334/2008; tabled 17/09/2008, J.868.

11. 18/09/2008, J.883–84.

12. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 2008, PP No. 353/2008; adopted 15/10/2008, J.1030.

13. Paragraph (1) originally concluded with the words: “and to other senators relating to any matter connected with the business on the Notice Paper of which such senators have charge”. 10/3/2009, J.1657–58.

14. 14/9/1992, SD, p.703.

15. 14/9/1992, J.2745.

16. 6/10/1992, J.2816, time varied to four minutes; 3/11/1992, J.2931, time varied to three minutes.

17. 6/10/1992, SD, p.1123.

18. 14/9/1992, SD, p.719.

19. 16/9/1992, J.2775; for the debate, see 15/9/1992, SD, pp.874–81; 16/9/1992, SD, pp.969–77.

20. 6/10/1992, J.2816–19; 3/11/1992, J.2931; 24/11/1992, J.3076.

21. 5/5/1993, J.71.

22. 6/5/1993, J.101.

23. 13/5/1993, J.149.

24. 1/3/1994, SD, p. 1163.

25. 13/10/1994, J.2280

26. For example, see comments by Senator Ellison (Lib, WA) and Senator Bob Brown (AG, Tas) 18/9/2008, SD, pp.5079, 5080.

27. PP No. 500/2008, tabled 12/11/2008, J.1161.

28. 13/11/2008, SD, p.6846.

29. 13/11/2008, J.1206.

30. 4/12/2008, J.1421.

31. PP No. 35/2009, tabled 12/2/2009, J.1606.

SO73

1. 24/11/1904, SD, p.7363.

2. 28/10/1909, SD, p.5097.

3. An exhaustive list of the rulings of various Presidents that were used to compile these rules is included in the 1938 MS.

4. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965, adopted 2/12/1965, J.427.

SO74

1. Until 24/8/1955, questions appeared on the Notice Paper in reverse order, that is, new questions were printed before the older questions. Subsequently, questions began to be printed in the order in which they were received, along with a notation of the day on which notice was given. From 13/8/1963, all questions were allotted a specific number and a notation appeared in the Notice Paper explaining that henceforth questions would not necessarily appear in an unbroken numerical sequence.

2. Extract from a submission to the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Collings (ALP, Qld) as quoted in Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 1st ed., 1953, p.77.

3. For example, 4/3/1969, SD, p.209.

4. 4/3/1969, SD, p.209.

5. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 1/1969, tabled 5/3/1969, J.399; adopted 26/9/1969, J.644.

6. Subsequently contained in Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 37/1969, tabled 21/5/1969, J.471; adopted 26/9/1969, J.644.

7. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 111/1971, tabled 17/8/1971, J.641; adopted 22/3/1972, J.917.

8. 3/9/1970, J.283.

9. 11/2/1975, SD, pp.32–37. Senator Cavanagh (ALP, SA) consistently argued against changes to standing orders on this ground.

10. 11/2/1975, J.498.

11. 20/8/1975, J.860; 18/2/1976, J.24; 23/3/1977, J.45.

12. 28/9/1988, J.952.

13. 13/2/1997, J.1447.

14. For example, see comments by Senators Bob Brown (AG, Tas) (28/8/2002, SD, p.3846) and Allison (AD, Vic) (p.3847).

15. See comments by Senator Ray (ALP, Vic), 28/8/2002, SD, p.3845.

16. 28/8/2002, J.685.

17. 9/11/2005, J.1380–81.

18. 6/9/1917, J.84.

19. PP No. 2/1977, p.2.

20. 16/3/1977, J.26–27.

21. PP No. 176/2003, pp.1–2.

22. 8/9/2003, J.2287.

Chapter 12 - Matters of public importance and urgency

SO75

1. Odgers called this procedure “part of the greatness of the parliamentary system of government”. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., Chapter XIV, pp.422–29.

2. See, for example, 16/7/1902, J.473, motion moved by Senator Higgs (ALP, Qld), negatived; 8/9/1903, J.163, motion moved by Senator Higgs agreed to. Consequently, the Senate met the following day half an hour earlier than its normal time. In later times, the closure was sometimes used to conclude proceedings and it was also common for the debate to be “talked out” till time expired and the business of the day called on without the question being put.

3. Standing Rules and Orders for Regulating the Public Business of the House of Assembly, Adelaide, 1897. Standing order 48 dealt with motions for adjournment to debate matters of urgency, while SO 46 dealt with ordinary adjournment motions. In the First Session of the First Parliament 1901–02, such motions were moved on 16 occasions, the first being on 26/6/1901, J.49, in relation to the days of sitting. All but one (which was negatived) were withdrawn by leave. See Business of the Senate 1901–1906, Department of the Senate, 1999.

4. See Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, p.9. For the equivalent procedure, Blackmore’s draft required the support of seven members, the Victorian Legislative Assembly, twelve members, and the Victorian Legislative Council, six members. South Australian Legislative Assembly SO 48, used by the Senate till 1/9/1903, employed a different mechanism: one member could object to such a motion being moved. Despite increases in the size of the Senate, the number of supporters required has remained at four.

5. See 13/8/1903, SD, pp.3520–21.

6. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. S.1/1937, p.1.

7. Resolution of the Senate of 7/10/1903 incorporated into the standing order providing for the adjournment to be moved by a minister, by recommendation of the Standing Orders Committee, 6/12/1905, J.211; and see 22/11/1905, J.177 and 30/11/1905, SD, p.6064.

8. 19/8/1971, SD, pp.201–27; 16/9/1971, SD, pp.835–61; 22/3/1972, J.917–19, SD, pp.800–04, 807–28.

9. 11/2/1975, J.497–99; 20/8/1975, J.860; also see 19/8/1975, J.851–54, SD, p.27.

10. See remarks of Senator Willesee (ALP, WA), 19/8/1971, SD, pp.214–16. He was referring to a procedure in use in the House of Representatives. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.236–37, for commentary on the effect of a vote on an urgency motion.

11. Sessional Order for 1978 adopted 8/3/1978, J.60; see 7/3/1978, J.56–57, SD, pp.386–402

12. Standing Orders Committee, Fourth Report for Fifty–ninth Session 1978–79, PP No. 70/1979; adopted 23/8/1979, J.883–84, SD, pp.212–14; re-adopted 26/11/1980, J.23.

13. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for the Sixtieth Session 1980–81, PP No. 360/1981; 26/11/1981, J.716–17.

14. See Sessional Order 4, 22/4/1983, J.34.

15. See Sessional Order 3, as amended, 28/2/1984, J.651–56.

16. See Sessional Orders 3 and 4, 22/2/1985, J.37–39

17. Standing Orders Committee, Fourth Report, of Sixty–second Session, PP No. 435/1986; 24/2/1987, J.1648–49.

18. 10/4/1989, SD, p.1255.

Chapter 13 - Notices of Motion

SO76

1. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.222.

2. 10/06/1903, SD, p.681.

3. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.1/1914, tabled 10/6/1914, J.73.

4. 11/6/1914, J.79–80.

5. 11/6/1914, SD, pp.1999–2000.

6. Recommended by the Procedure Committee in its First Report of 1999, PP No. 57/1999; see below for details.

7. Standing Orders Committee, Fourth Report, PP No. 435/1986, p.1.

8. 24/2/1987, J.1648–49.

9. 1/6/1989, SD, pp.3176–77.

10. Procedure Committee, Fourth Report of the Sixty–third Session, PP No. 463/1989, pp.1–4.

11. J.1891.

12. J.236–37.

13. 23/8/1990, SD, pp.2038–41.

14. 10/12/1998, J.370; 15/2/1999, J.423.

15. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1999, PP No. 462/1991, p.3

16. 29/4/1999, J.815; 30/6/1999, J.1396; 30/11/1999, J.2143.

SO78

1. Legislative Instruments Act 2003, ss.37–48.

2. Senator Murphy, 27/8/1970, SD, p.303.

3. 10/12/1971, J.859, SD, pp.2675–76. Standing Orders Committee, Sixth Report, PP No. 178/1972, p.5.

4. 12/10/1972, J.1164.

5. 25/10/1978, SD, pp.1576–77.

6. Standing Orders Committee, Fourth Report for Fifty–ninth Session, PP No.70/1979, pp.1–3.

7. 23/8/1979, J.883–84; 26/11/1980, J.23; 26/11/1981, J.716–17.

Chapter 14 - Motions and questions

SO79

1. 25/5/1904, SD, pp.1462–63. President Baker had expressed the same view during the 1903 debates in relation to the rule requiring notices of motion to be given before the business of the day commenced, and that standing order (now SO 76(5)) was amended before adoption to allow notices to be given by leave at other times. 10/6/1903, SD, p.681.

2. 25/5/1904, SD, pp.1463–64.

3. Ruling of President Baker, 25/5/1904, SD, p.1464. Leave was granted and the motion agreed to (J.46). As promised, the report was tabled the following day (J.49).

SO80

1. See, for example, SOs 58, 59, 61, 62, 65, 67, 68, 80 and 97.

2. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (8) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.3.

SO81

1. This clarification was added in the 1989 revision. See Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment B.(8), pp.2,3.

2. See Final Report, October 1984, PP No. 219/1984, pp.101–04.

3. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965, p. 9; adopted 2/12/1965, J.427.

4. PP No. 219/1984, p.102.

5. Privilege Resolution 4, 25/2/1988.

SO82

1. See Final Report, October 1984, PP No. 219/1984, pp.114–15.

2. These explanatory notes are reproduced in each of the general reports presented by the Senate Committee of Privileges, the latest being 125th Report Parliamentary Privilege: Precedents, procedures and practice in the Australian Senate 1966 – 2005, PP No. 3/2006, pp.107–12.

3. See Committee of Privileges, 99th Report – Possible unauthorised disclosure of a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Securities, PP No. 177/2001; tabled 30/8/2001 and notice given for 17/9/2001 in respect of finding and penalty, J.4834; 18/9/2001, J.4866, finding and penalty adopted.

SO83

1. For other methods, see under “Avoidance of question” in chapter 9, Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.227–29.

2. See Harry Evans, Introduction to Volume 1, Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, op. cit., p.7.

3. See entries on Senators Keating (Nat, Tas), Ready (ALP, Tas) and Bakhap (Nat, Tas) in Volume 1, Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, op. cit.

SO84

1. Standing Orders Committee, Fifth Report for Fifty-ninth Session, PP No. 50/1980, p.6; see 28/4/1981, J.213–14, SD, pp.1420–23; Second Report for the Sixtieth Session, PP No. 360/1981, p.2; 26/11/1981, J.716–17.

SO85

1. 5/10/1967, J.241, SD, p.1258.

2. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment C.(12), pp.2,4.

SO86

1. For accounts, see Ian Hancock, “The VIP Affair 1966–67: The Causes, Course and Consequences of a Ministerial and Public Service Cover-Up”, Australasian Parliamentary Review, Vol. 18, No. 2, Spring, 2003; and Tom Frame, The Life and Death of Harold Holt, Allen & Unwin, 2005, pp.226–34.

2. For accounts, see Geoffrey Sawer, Australian Federal Politics and Law 1929–1949, Melbourne University Press, 1963, pp.30–31, 49; Professor G.S. Reid, “Parliamentary Control of the Executive”, paper given to the Commonwealth Conference of Delegated Legislation Committees, Canberra, 1980, PP No. 273/1980, pp.20–30, especially pp.23–24; and Robert Walsh and John Uhr, “Parliamentary Disallowance of Delegated Legislation: A History of the Basic Provisions in the Acts Interpretation Act”, Legislative Studies Newsletter, No. 10, 1985, pp.11–20, especially pp.16–20.

3. 4/3/1932, SD, pp.654–55.

4. The amendment, to the Acts Interpretation Act 1904, was effected by s.4 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1932, Act No. 24 of 1932, assented to on 30/5/1932. The 1904 Act was repealed in 1937 and the preceding provision replaced by s.49 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, a more sophisticated provision which accommodated the new concept of deemed disallowance, also effected by the 1937 amending legislation, Act No. 10 of 1937. Section 49 was later superseded by s.48 of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

5. Sawer, op. cit., p.31.

6. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment B.(9), pp.2, 3–4.

SO87

1. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th edition, p.182. In addition to the cited precedent, another example occurred in 2008 when a motion was moved in respect of the previously disallowed Health Insurance (Dental Services) Determination; 16/9/2008, J.857 (motion negatived).

SO88

1. See chapter 20 on bills for commentary on how the unusual practices described by Edwards have become the norm rather than the exception, and how they have been further streamlined, with appropriate safeguards.

2. 10/6/1903, SD, p. 682.

3. Procedure Committee, First Report of 2008, PP No. 334/2008, tabled 17/9/2008, J.868; debated and adopted 18/9/2008, J.880, 883–84, SD, pp.5076–85.

Chapter 15 - Amendments

SO89

1. Note that this does not apply to urgency motions under SO 75, motions to suspend standing orders under SO 209 or, in practice, motions under SO 72 to take note of answers given to questions without notice. When the time available for these debates expires, the question is put.

SO90

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, p. xvii.

2. See, for example, rulings of President Baker, 30/09/1903, SD, p.5573, 30/06/1904, SD, p.2872 and no. 144 (Subsidiary rules laid down by the President).

3. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment C.(13), pp.2, 4.

4. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.233, cites the ruling of President Turley, 4/12/1912, SD, p.6329.

SO91

1. The 1938 MS contains extensive notes on this which are now obsolete. The form of the question used in the Senate was not the standard parliamentary form (“That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the question”). The standard form had been contained in the draft standing orders but was amended before adoption to take into account the impact of s.23 of the Constitution (the effect of equally divided votes) and the principle that the status quo should remain unless there is a majority in favour of change. On this basis, the form of the question was reversed for the Senate. For an example of an equally divided vote giving the wrong result when the standard form of the question was used on amendments to a bill, see 31/1/1902, J.272–73 (later rectified, see 5/2/1902, J.276).

2. See old SOs 144, 145 and 149, deleted in conjunction with the adoption of the 1987 sessional order.

3. Fifth report of Sixty–second Session (1985–87), PP No. 169/1987, p.4.

4. As the 1902 example cited in Note 700 demonstrates.

5. See SO 92.

6. Report, PP No. 169/1987, pp.2–4.

7. 15/9/1987, J.36–43.

8. For further analysis of and historical background to this principle, see Harry Evans, “Parliamentary Practice: Amendments, amendments”, The House Magazine, 26/11/1986, pp.7, 9.

Chapter 16 - Previous question

SO94

1. President Baker argued that it did not matter if there was an amendment to a substantive motion before the chair. Moving the previous question to the motion had the effect of sweeping away the amendment as well. Therefore, the reference in paragraph (3) to “and any amendment” was intentional and not superfluous or illogical. The strength of his argument clearly persuaded Senator Pearce (ALP, WA) to withdraw his amendment to omit the phrase. See 10/6/1903, SD, pp.682–83; and 13/8/1903, SD, pp.3530–33.

2. The Standing Orders Committee and President Baker were reported to have taken great care on this chapter and on making the standing orders suit the convenience of the Senate rather than conforming necessarily to general parliamentary practice. While the bulk of the provisions reflected “ancient usage” and paragraph (1) was explicitly based on House of Commons practice, paragraph (3), for example, embodied a new concept. See the debates cited in the previous note and Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, p.16.

Chapter 17 - Orders of the day

SO97

1. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (8) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.3.

Chapter 18 - Divisions

SO98

1. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965, p.10.

2. See rulings of President Cormack: “Once the President has given a decision that a motion has been carried on the voices, only a Senator moving to dispute his ruling can call for a division”. 28/2/1973, SD, pp.76–77; 2/5/1973, SD, pp.1257–63.

3. 11/2/1975, SD, p.26. Also see comments on pp.26–28 by Senators Anderson (Lib, NSW), Cormack (Lib, Vic), Laucke (Lib, SA) and the veteran thunderer for the rights of senators, Senator Cavanagh (ALP, SA), then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, who took up the argument against the mover of the motion, Senator Doug McClelland.

4. 11/2/1975, SD, p.28.

5. 20/8/1975, J.860; and see 19/8/1975, J.851, 853–54; SD, pp.24–25.

6. See Rulings of President Baker, 14/12/1904, SD, p.8458 and President Givens, 6/10/1920, SD, p.5338.

SO99

1. See commentary on SO 102 where it is recorded that the 1989 revision deleted this provision as redundant. It is covered by s.23 of the Constitution.

2. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice,13th ed., p.277.

3. See s.40 of the Constitution.

4. In 1996, for example, during consideration of multiple amendments to the Social Security Legislation Amendment  (Budget and Other Measures) Bill 1996 and a related bill, the Chairman of Committees, Senator Colston, who, with Senator Harradine (Ind, Tas), held the balance of power in the Senate, indicated his vote to the committee at the request of the then Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Faulkner (ALP, NSW), to expedite proceedings and minimise the number of divisions that might otherwise have been called if Senator Colston’s position had not been advised. 13/12/1996, SD, pp.7600-45; for particular examples, see pp.7627, 7628, 7632, 7633–34.

5. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, see marginal note to SO 160, p.18.

6. See SO 185. President Baker continued to occupy the President’s chair when he participated in committee of the whole.

7. 10/6/1903, SD, p.683.

8. 10/6/1903, SD, p.684.

9. 10/6/1903, J.17.

SO100

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901. tabled 9/10/1901; see marginal notes to SOs 161–63, p.18.

2. 2/9/1915, J.310; SD, p.6638.

3. 11/6/1914, SD, p.2000.

4. Ruling of President Givens: A senator should vote in accordance with his voice. 22/10/1913, SD, p.2327.

5. 2/12/1965, J.427.

6. These standing orders (old SOs 123 and 140) were deleted in 1981 when the requirement for seconding was abolished. See SO 84.

7. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965.

8. See statement by President Beahan, 30/5/1995, SD, pp.524–25.

SO101

1. Senator Doug McClelland (ALP, NSW), 11/2/1975, SD, 29.

2. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for Fifty–Sixth Session, PP No. 276/1974; 11/2/1975, J.497; 19/8/1975, J.852–53.

3. 1/6/1988, J.802.

4. Ruling of President Givens, 13/11/1918, SD, p.7761. The proceedings in question concerned the notorious Commonwealth Electoral Bill (see SO 189) and a motion for the closure on a motion to suspend standing orders to allow passage of the bill through all stages without delay.

5. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, p.18.

6. 19/2/1908, J.296.

7. See, for example, 1/3/1995, SD, p.1208; 21/3/1997, SD, pp.2131–32; 21/4/1999, SD, p.3998; 27/6/2002, SD, p.2896; and 16/6/2004, SD, p.23987.

8. 24/2/1982, SD, p.450.

9. 1/3/1995, SD, p.1208. The 1992 incident referred to by Senator Ray involved just such a situation. See proceedings on the Industrial Relations Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1992, 16/12/1992 am, J.3369–71, especially the point of order raised by Senator Faulkner (ALP, NSW) (then Government Deputy Whip) and ensuing debate, SD, pp.5112–19. It took four divisions to rectify the situation rather than the 12 claimed by Senator Ray.

SO103

1. The Senate’s original Standing Orders Committee was authorised to confer with the equivalent committee of the House of Representatives “with reference to the proposed new Standing Orders” on 26/7/1901, J.87.

2. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1997, PP No. 22/1997, p.3.

3. See rulings of President Baker, 28/9/1906, SD, p.5644: a senator is entitled to speak only on a question of order arising out of the division.

SO104

1. Odgers’, Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.280.

2. For examples, see 5/12/1974, SD, pp.3212–13; 9/9/1996, J.537–38; 21/11/1996, J.1081–82; 13/5/1998, J.3765; 27/5/1998, J.3859–60; 2/12/1998, J.252; 3/12/1998, J.270–2; 17/2/1999, J.458–9, 471; 21/4/1999, J.756–57; 19/8/2003, J.2221; 20/8/2003, J.2228–31; 25/11/2003, J.2722–23; 18/3/2009, J.1774–76, 1778.

Chapter 19 - Roll Call

SO106

1. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (17) under “Proposed changes of substance”, pp.4–5. See 1/6/1988, J.812–13 for an example.

2. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment A.(4), pp.1, 3.

SO107

1. 17/6/1903, SD, pp.983–84.

2. Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p. 890. See Chapter XXIII generally.

SO108

1. Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p. 890.

2. For an example, see 1/6/1988, J.812–13.

SO109

1. 17/6/1903, SD, p.984.

2. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice,13th ed., p. 285.

SO110

1. See SO 135 for the remaining part.

2. For example, see 30/6/1999, J.1394; 12/8/1999, J.1482; 15/5/2003, J.1829–30.

Chapter 20 - Bills

SO111

1. See Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901; tabled 9/10/1901, J.179, p.19, marginal notes to SOs 177–80, and 11/6/1903, SD, pp.748–53.

2. Standing order 275, which reads “No clause shall be inserted in any such draft foreign to the title of the Bill, and if any such clause be afterwards introduced, the title shall be altered accordingly”.

3. 11/6/1903, J.20, SD, pp.748–53.

4. For details, see Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed, p.297–98.

5. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1996, PP No. 194/1996; adopted 13/2/1997, J.1447.

6. 13/2/1997, J.1445.

7. 14/5/2003, J.1798–99, SD, pp.11071–75.

SO112

1. See Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901; tabled 9/10/1901, J.179, pp.19–20, marginal notes to SOs 181–85.

2. See remarks by Senator Symon (FT, SA), 11/6/1903, SD, p.754; and Senator Pearce (UAP, WA), 1/9/1937, SD, pp.348–49.

3. For example, rulings of President Lynch, 9/11/1932, SD, p.2108, 31/5/1933, SD, p.1971, 1/6/1933, SD, pp.2014–16: Debate on the first reading of money bills may be on matters of general interest not relevant to the bill, but may also relate to the subject-matter of the bill.

4. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.1/1937.

5. Remarks of Senator Sampson (UAP, Tas), 1/9/1937, SD, p.348.

6. J.44.

7. C. B. Boydell, Notes on the Practice and Procedure of the Senate in relation to Appropriation, Taxation, and Other Money Bills; together with Standing Orders and Presidents’ Rulings; also a Summary of Cases Referred to (1901–1910), tabled and ordered to be printed 6/9/1911, J.11, p.7.

8. 13/6/1901, SD, p.1034. Senator McGregor (ALP, SA) continued: “if we want equality with the other House … we ought to be placed in the very same position”.

9. C. B. Boydell, op. cit., p.8.

10. 11/6/1903, J.21, SD, pp.754–55.

11. 9/9/1909, SD, p.3213.

12. For example, the Banking Bill 1957, 3/12/1957, J.170; and the Marriage Amendment Bill 2004, 24/6/2004, J.3752.

13. J.1447; Procedure Committee, First report of 1996, PP No. 194/1996.

SO113

1. For a more detailed account of the old procedures used to eliminate delays in the passage of bills, see Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.524–27.

2. Standing Orders Committee, Fourth Report of Fifty–Second Session, PP No. 111/1971, p.6.

3. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for Fifty–Sixth Session, PP No. 276/1974, pp.3–4.

4. 19/8/1975, J.851–54, SD, p.25; 20/8/1975, J.860.

5. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.524.

6. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.525.

7. Sessional order adopted 13/5/1987, J.1849–50; for Senator Evans’ comments, see 26/5/1987, SD, p.2907. The proposals to rationalise and expedite proceedings on bills had been examined by the Standing Orders Committee but were not the subject of recommendations. The committee noted in its Fifth Report for the Sixty–Second Session, March 1987, PP No. 169/1987, pp.4–5, that the Manager of Government Business (Senator Evans) intended to put specific proposals before the Senate for consideration.

8. 15/9/1987, J.36–43.

9. Examples include the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme package of bills on two occasions (17/11/2009, J.2729 and 22/2/2010, J.3172–73) and a package of private health insurance incentives bills (4/2/2010, J.3132–33).

SO114

1. See Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901; tabled 9/10/1901, J.179, p. 20, marginal notes to SOs 186–88; 11/6/1903, SD, p.755.

2. 9/9/1909, J.120–21, SD, pp.3214–15.

3. The term “bad company” is used by Odgers. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.451. Note that the Parliamentary Evidence Bill 1904, a private senator’s bill, had been referred to the Standing Orders Committee (see SO 176). The purpose of the referral was to explore whether the matter covered in the bill would be better dealt with by standing orders. Therefore, it is not really comparable with the fate of a government bill.

4. Report, PP S.1/1929–31, pp.xii–xiii.

5. 10/7/1930, J.129–30. However, the three ALP senators appointed to the committee took no part in its proceedings and were discharged from the committee on the motion of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Daly (ALP, SA); 11/7/1930, J.133. They were replaced by two other opposition senators on 16/7/1930, J.135.

6. Report from the Select Committee appointed to consider and report upon the Central Reserve Bank Bill, PP No. S.4/1929–30, p.ix.

7. 3/12/1930, J.207.

8. Amendment moved 15/4/1931, J.259; agreed to 23/4/1931, J.267.

9. According to the first Report of the Select Committee on the advisability or otherwise of establishing standing committees of the Senate (PP No. S.1/1931), ministers regarded referral of a bill as a hostile move (see p.xii).

10. For an account of the evolution of the “dilatory amendment” in the United Kingdom, see Christopher Johnson, “Dilatory Amendments in the House of Lords”, The Table, Vol. 76, 2008, pp.55–66. The procedure had evolved to its current form in both Houses of the UK Parliament by the 1830s whence it was adopted by the colonial assemblies and subsequently by both Houses of the Australian Parliament. The Lords has recently changed its procedure to provide for a more directly expressed method of finally defeating a bill.

SO115

1. First Report, PP. S.3/1932–33–34, tabled 31/7/1934.

2. See the list in Appendix 1 of the report of the Select Committee on Legislation Procedures, pp.29–32.

3. Orders agreed to 5/12/1989, J.2303–05; Senate Select Committee on Legislation Procedures, Report, tabled 1/12/1988, PP No. 398/1998.

4. J.1580.

5. J.98–99.

6. J.2303–05.

7. See Procedure Committee, Discussion Paper: Estimates Committees and Appropriation Bills, 19 December 1991; First Report of 1992, PP No. 527/1992, tabled 24/3/1992, adopted 6/5/1993, J.96–100, with effect from the first sitting day in August 1993.

8. J.2303–05.

SO116

1. Including the Invalid and Old-Age Pensions Bill 1943, Invalid and Old-Age Pensions Appropriation Bill 1943 and Widows’ Pensions Bill 1943, all passed on 24/3/1943, J.322–23.

2. See SO 84 for dividing a complicated question.

SO117

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, J.179, p.20; 11/6/1903, SD, pp.755–57.

2. 11/6/1903, SD, pp.756–57.

SO118

1. 12/8/1903, SD, p.3432; J.119. Postponed standing orders had been reconsidered by the Standing Orders Committee at meetings in July 1903. In its Second Report on Proposed Standing Orders, PP No. S.3/1903, the committee recommended that this standing order remain as originally proposed.

2. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.316–17.

3. See commentary on SO 111.

SO119

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, J.179, p.21.

SO120

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, J.179, p.21; see commentary on SOs 117 and 118.

2. 11/6/1903, SD, pp.757–58.

3. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.479.

4. See Review of standing orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (10) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.3. Original SO 209, which provided for similar certification by the Chairman of Committees before the third reading, suffered the same fate.

SO122

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, J.179, pp.21–22; 11/6/1903, SD, p.758. See SO 150, note 896 for the few other attributions to House of Commons practice.

2. See Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996, 24/3/1997, J.1740, SD, p.2327; Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to Civilian Authorities) Bill 2000, 7/9/2000, J.3256, SD, p.17610.

3. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment C.(14), pp.2, 4.

SO126

1. 11/6/1903, J.21, SD, p.758. The amendment was supported by 17 votes to 6.

2. See Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (11) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.3.

3. See, for example, proceedings on the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Television Switch–over) Bill 2008, 4–5/12/2008, J.1474.

SO129

1. President Gould, 9/9/1909, SD, p.3219.

2. 9/9/1909, SD, p.3220.

3. J.11.

SO133

1. See Review of standing orders by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712, paragraph (11) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.3.

SO134

1. 11/6/1903, SD, p.764.

2. ibid.

3. 11/6/1903, SD, pp.759–60.

4. 11/6/1903, SD, p.761.

5. J.82; PP No. S.3/1903.

6. J.119.

7. Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.500.

8. J.18.

SO135

1. See Review of standing orders by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712, paragraph (17) under “Proposed changes of substance”, pp.4–5; and Revised Standing Orders. Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988. A(4). Although the procedures were to be retained, it was suggested that they be renamed “Roll call” which was more intelligible than “Call of the Senate”. For “Roll call”, see Chapter 19.

2. Constitution Alteration (Right to stand for Parliament—Qualification of Members and Candidates) 1998 (No. 2) [2002], introduced by Senator Bob Brown (AG, Tas); 15/5/2003, J.1830.

SO136

1. The amendment was to include a reference to general as well as periodic elections and was apparently intended to cover what Senator Symon referred to as “penal dissolutions” as well as periodic half-Senate elections. See 11/6/1903, J.21, SD, pp.764–65.

2. J.39; Report of the Standing Orders Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives on the Question of Proceedings on Lapsed Bills, PP No. S.2/1905.

3. 30/8/1905, J.54, SD, pp.1627–34.

SO137

1. The Senate’s first Clerk, E.G. Blackmore, was known only by the title “Clerk of the Parliaments”. When he retired in 1908, his successor, C.B. Boydell, was appointed as Clerk of the Senate but only after protracted correspondence between the Senate President and the Prime Minister, the former arguing the case, based on almost universal practice in the States, New Zealand, Canada and Great Britain, to retain the traditional title and the latter insisting that the title “Clerk of the Senate” more accurately reflected the position (and was the term used in the Public Service Act). With the Parliament summoned to meet within days and the situation demanding settlement, President Gould acceded to the Prime Minister’s wishes on 11/9/1908 and Boydell’s appointment was backdated to 1/7/1908. Department of the Senate, Letterpress book 1908–11, folios 122–23, 125A–25B, 126–30, 132, 133–34, 135, 138, 139, 141, 142, 153–54, 156–57, 159, 160–64. See Appendix 4.

2. 1/9/1937, SD, p.349; Standing Orders Committee, Report: Amendments of Existing Standing Orders, tabled 26/8/1937, PP No. S.1/1937.

3. Department of the Senate, Letterpress book 1901–1903, folio 139, dated 21/8/1901; another letter from President Baker to the Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun, dated 13/12/1901, folio 244, seeks permission for a particular bill to be presented by the Clerk to the Private Secretary because the assent print will not be ready before the Governor-General leaves Melbourne.

4. Department of the Senate, Letterpress book 1901–1903, folios 55–57.

SO138

1. 11/6/1903, SD, pp.765–67.

SO139

1. Section 5 provides that a bill comes into effect on the 28th day after assent unless otherwise specified.

2. “Proclamation of Acts – When … How … If?” The House Magazine, 13 May 1987; “Legislation by Proclamation – Parliamentary Nightmare, Bureaucratic Dream,” Papers on Parliament, No. 2, July 1988; “Legislation by Proclamation – revisited,” The House Magazine, 30 August 1989, all by Anne Lynch; and “Management and Mousetraps,” The Parliamentarian, July 1994, pp.194–99, by Anne Lynch and David Creed.

3. Initial order agreed to 27/9/1988, J.936; return to order tabled 24/11/1988, J.1160 and debated SD, 2774–80; order of continuing effect agreed to 29/11/1988, J.1205.

4. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1996, PP No. 194/1996; adopted 13/2/1997, J.1447.

5. 22/11/1999, J.2008–09.

SO140

1. 11/6/1903, SD, p.768.

2. Second Report on Proposed Standing Orders, PP No. S.3/1903.

3. C. B. Boydell (Clerk of the Senate 1908–16), Notes on the Practice and Procedure of the Senate in relation to Appropriation, Taxation, and Other Money Bills; together with Standing Orders and Presidents’ Rulings; also a Summary of Cases Referred to (1901–1910), tabled 6/9/1911, J.11, p. 13; Federal Convention Debates, Melbourne, Vol. II, p.1996.

4. Federal Convention Debates, Melbourne, Vol. II, p.1997.

5. 14/6/1901, J.35–36.

6. 20/6/1901, J.42–43.

7. Standing Orders Committee, First Report,PP No. S.1/1908, p.7; 9/9/1909, J.121, SD, pp.3223–26.

8. President Gould, 9/9/1909, SD, p.3225.

9. President Gould, 9/9/1909, SD, p.3225.

10. Standing Orders Committee, [Fourth] Report, August 1971, PP No. 111/1971, item 6, adopted 22/3/1972, J.917, SD, p.801; See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.596.

11. Legal and Constitutional References Committee, Report on matters referred to the Committee during the previous Parliament, tabled and adopted 29/5/1996, J.259–60.

12. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, The Third Paragraph of section 53 of the Constitution: Exposure Draft, tabled 6/3/1995, VP.1895; The Third Paragraph of section 53 of the Constitution, PP No. 307/1995.

13. See proceedings on the New Business Tax System (Miscellaneous) Bill 1999: statement by the Chair of Committees, 5/6/2000, J.2734, SD, p.14585; statement by the Chair of Committees, 8/6/2000, J.2778–79, SD, p.14923; statement by the Chair of Committees, 26/6/2000, J.2898–99, SD, p.15633; and resolution of the Senate, 26/6/2000, J.2899.

14. See order of continuing effect No. 1, agreed to 26/6/2000, J.2899, reproduced in Standing Orders and other orders of the Senate, September 2006, p.119.

SO141

1. For a succinct account of the development of the Constitution, see Kathleen Dermody, A Nation at Last: The Story of Federation, AGPS, 1997. Also see generally The Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth, ed. John Quick and Robert Garran, 1901.

2. See, for example, 9/9/1902, J.552; 28/5/1908, J.611.

SO142

1. 22–23/8/1923, J.89–96, J.97; 24/8/1923, J.101.

2. 16/7/1925, J.43–46; 29–31/8/1925, J.79–91.

3. 4/9/1925, J.97.

4. 3/3/1926, SD, p.1212; Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.1/1926, tabled 11/2/1926.

5. 3/3/1926, SD, pp.1218–23; J.45.

6. See Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (15) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.4. See SO 144 for a history of special majorities.

7. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1999, PP No. 360/1999, adopted 22/11/1999, J.2008–09.

Chapter 21 - Committees of the Whole

SO143

1. Observation by President Baker, 17/6/1903, SD, pp.987–88.

2. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.718 for a slightly more detailed explanation; and House of Representatives Practice, 2nd ed., edited by A.R. Browning et. al., AGPS, Canberra, 1989, pp.233–34 for further information, including reference to a critique of this theory.

3. See SO 9. The South Australian position on a Chairman was the exception but the procedure itself was universal. It has subsequently been abolished in some jurisdictions. For a caveat on such “reforms”, see Harry Evans, “The traditional, the quaint and the useful: pitfalls of reforming parliamentary procedures”, 35th Presiding Officers’ and Clerks’ Conference, Melbourne, 2004. The ancient forms of Committees of Supply and Ways and Means also had an influence on arrangements for committee of the whole and on the office of chairman of committees. See E.G. Blackmore, Manual of the Procedure and Usage of the House of Assembly of the Province of South Australia, Adelaide, 1885, pp.49–52.

4. For example, see 24/2/1987, J.1648. This method could also be used for consideration of Procedure Committee reports but these are now more commonly dealt with as Business of the Senate, and a series of motions moved to implement the recommendations.

5. For example, see 29/3/2007, J.3740.

6. For example, see 28/5/1990, J.151; a document relating to answers to questions taken on notice during Estimates hearings.

7. For the exception, see SO 144.

8. 11/6/1903, SD, pp.777–78.

9. 11/6/1903, SD, p.778.

10. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (12) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.4.

SO144

1. 11/6/1903, SD, pp.778–86; 12/6/1903, SD, pp.862–75; and 17/6/1903, SD, pp.969–83. Also see SO 199.

2. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (15) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.4. It is not entirely correct that the special majorities were not updated. In 1965 they were increased from 13 to 21. See Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965; adopted 2/12/1965, J.427.

3. See Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), paragraph (14) under “Proposed changes of content”, p.9. Note, however, that an absolute majority was achieved, for example, by the 4th Howard Government and operated from 1/7/2005 to 24/11/2007.

4. Letters to E.G. Blackmore from James Bryce, dated 31/7/1903, A.V. Dicey, dated 15/8/1903 and Sir Courtenay Ilbert, dated 4/8/1903, held by the Department of the Senate, reference B1F23 and B1F24. These letters, and another from Sir William Anson, author of The Law and Custom of the Constitution (1886–1892), also provided Blackmore with advice on the term of office of President. See SO 5, and Appendix 13 for the text of the letters. The issue did not arise in relation to the adoption in 1905 of a (different) special majority for a particular kind of instruction to a committee of the whole. See 20/12/1905, SD, pp.7445–7455. When the imposition of the guillotine (SO 142) was debated in 1926, there was also no discussion of the constitutional propriety of a special majority, the very idea of a guillotine being thought offensive enough by those who opposed it. See 3/3/1926, SD, pp.1212–23.

5. By Senator Downer (Prot, SA), 17/6/1903, SD, p.977.

6. 17/6/1903, SD, pp.971, 979–80.

7. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (16) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.4.

8. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment A.(5), pp.1, 3.

9. The rationale for the traditional bar on use of the previous question in committee was the availability of another procedure in old SOs 280 and 281, a motion that the Chairman do now leave the Chair, which had the same effect of superseding proceedings then before the Chair. This procedure was abolished in the course of the 1989 revision because, given the availability of motions to report progress, it had not been used. See Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (14) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.4 and E.G. Blackmore, Manual of the Procedure and Usage of the House of Assembly of the Province of South Australia, Adelaide, 1885, p.182.

10. 23/2/1944, J.45, SD, pp.427–29.

SO145

1. For an example, see 5/12/1991, J.1870–72 (Political Broadcasts and Political Disclosures Bill 1991).

2. Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.677. Also see Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.268–69, 408.

SO146

1. For an example, see 21/11/1979, J.1088.

SO148

1. The change in practice was recorded in a memorandum from the Clerk of the Senate to the President and Deputy President, tabled in the Senate on 17/8/1989, J.1951, tabled paper no. 3560.

Chapter 22 - Instructions to Committees

SO149

1. The precursors were the similar standing orders of the South Australian, Victorian and New South Wales legislative assemblies. See Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, p.33. The NSW standing orders were rescinded on 5/11/1928 consequent on the removal of provision for moving an instruction.

2. For example, see 12/3/2002, J.154–6; 18/9/2002, J.760; 25/11/2003, J.2709–10; 16/6/2004, J.3473.

SO150

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, p.33. Other standing orders based explicitly on House of Commons practice are SOs 122(4), 144(3), 203 and 204; see Third Report, pp.16, 22, 27 and 42.

2. In his Manual of the Procedure and Usage of the House of Assembly of the Province of South Australia, Adelaide, 1885, Blackmore cites an instruction for the division of the Electoral Bill 1869 as one of two “irregular” precedents for instructions to committees, this one being “a still more irregular practice” (p.295). Unfortunately, there are no clues in the Blackmore papers held either by the Department of the Senate or by the National Archives of Australia as to when he warmed to the division and consolidation of bills.

3. 20/12/1905, SD, p.7445.

4. 20/12/1905, SD, pp.7445–7455.

5. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965, tabled 25/11/1965; adopted 2/12/1965, J.427, SD, p.2034. See SO 144 for a history of special majorities.

SO151

1. 20/12/1905, SD, pp.7445–55.

Chapter 23 - Communication between the two Houses

SO153

1. Standing Orders Committee, Report, PP No. 244/1965.

SO155

1. 11/6/1914, SD, p.2001.

2. 2/12/1965, J.427.

3. SO 175(2) provides that “A person other than a senator, a clerk at the table or an officer attending on the Senate may not … enter any part of the Senate chamber reserved for senators while the Senate is sitting”.

4. The bar of the Senate consists of brass gates in the brass railings that mark out the floor of the chamber, directly opposite the President. The gates remain open at all times (see Plate 20).

5. Examples include 7/3/1978, J.51–55 (concurrence with messages proposing several joint committees); 5/9/1991, J.1472 (negotiations on the terms of appointment of a joint committee); 28/11/1991, J.1774–75 (terms of a joint meeting to receive an address by a foreign head of state); 27/5/1993, J.308 (negotiations on the powers and proceedings of a joint statutory committee); 28/10/1993, J.745 (negotiations on the membership formula for a joint committee).

Chapter 24 - Conferences

SO156

1. On the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Bill 1930, 7–8/8/1930, J.170, 171, 175, 188–89, and the Northern Territory (Administration) Bill 1931, 17/12/1930, J.238; 26/3/1931, J.255; 29/4/1931, J.269, 270; 1/5/1931, J.274; 6/5/1931, J.276.

2. On Appropriation Bill 1921–22, on the question of whether the salaries of the Clerks of the two Houses should be uniform, 10/12/1921, J.527.

3. For example, on the proposed federal capital site in 1903, the site for the new Parliament House in 1969 and the Social Services Consolidation Bill 1950. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.690–91 for details.

4. For an example of senators negotiating directly with ministers in the House, see the proceedings on the so-called “Stimulus package” of bills in February 2009 during the course of which independent and minority party senators tabled letters from the Treasurer stating the terms on which those senators had agreed to support the passage of the bills; 12–13/2/2009, J.1616, 1619–20.

SO161

1. For an account of South Australian practices, see Rick Crump, “Conference of Managers on the Legal Profession Bill”, Parliament Matters (the half yearly bulletin of ANZACATT – Australia and New Zealand Association of Clerks-at-the-Table), Issue 21, February 2009, pp.34–35.

SO162

1. See marginal notes to SOs 325 to 337, Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, p.34. The standing order first appears as a hand written amendment in red ink, probably in O’Connor’s hand, on the revised draft of Blackmore’s initial draft, tabled on 23/5/1901, J.13 (tabled paper no. 1901/F). A note in pencil at the top of the chapter on conferences reads ”just enough for a draft”. Similar comments and queries occur throughout the document.

2. 17/6/1903, SD, p.998.

Chapter 25 - Ballots

SO163

1. For example, 9/12/1998, J.364, Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade; 30/3/1999, J.666, Select Committee on Information Technologies; 24/8/1999, J.1547, Select Committee on National Competition Policy; 15/5/2003, J.1831, Select Committee on Medicare; 30/8/2004, J.3968–69, Select Committee on the Scrafton Evidence; 18/3/2009, J.1772–73, Select Committee on Climate Policy.

2. 10/9/1996, J.549; 20/8/1996, SD, pp.2678–91.

3. 16/3/2010, J.3337–38; 17/3/2010, J.3345, 3367.

Chapter 26 - Tabling of documents

SO164

1. For comprehensive discussion on the Senate’s power to call for documents see Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.75–79; Procedural Information Bulletin No.226, 14/11/2008; and Procedure Committee, Third report of 1992, PP No. 510/1992, p.3.

2. Figures calculated from Business of the Senate 1901–1906, Department of the Senate, 1999 and Business of the Senate for the Third Parliament 12 December 1906 – 19 February 1910, Department of the Senate, n.d.

3. Figures calculated from annual editions of Business of the Senate, Department of the Senate, 2001–2008.

4. Ruling of President Baker, 25/5/1904, SD, p.1468.

5. See, for example, order initiated by Senator Harris (PHON, Qld) 1/11/2000, J.3462; censure motion moved by Senator Bartlett (AD, Qld), 13/10/1999, J.1845–46.

6. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.567.

7. 17/6/2010, J.3607; SD, p.3676–77.

SO165

1. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.568 and 17/6/1914, J.86–88.

SO166

1. Victorian Legislative Assembly SO 267 is cited as the progenitor in the Standing Orders Committee’s draft (First Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, p.36) but South Australian House of Assembly SO 234 is identical.

2. The Records Office, for example, was responsible for the production of the Journals of the Senate and the Notice Paper, official records of the Senate.

3. The Freedom of Information Act 1982 contained the first significant definition of “document”. The Archives Act 1983 used the term “record” which included documents. By Act No. 27 of 1984, the Archives Act 1901 was amended to include a comprehensive definition of document which took into account emerging media.

4. Procedure Committee, Second Report of 1990, PP No. 435/1990, pp.11–12. For the Royal Commission report see 11/10/1984, J.1219 and 22/10/1984, J.1276.

5. 13/2/1991, J.738, SD, pp.478–80.

6. Order amended 27/5/1993, J.290. Notice of motion given and correspondence from the Clerk to Senator Faulkner tabled, 26/5/1993, J.261 (tabled paper no. 618).

7. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1998, PP No. 176/1998; tabled 3/12/1998 and notices of motion given, J.265–66.

8. 7/12/1998, J.287.

SO167

1. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, 2 November 1987, PP No. 215/1987.

2. 19/2/1988, J.504, SD, pp.316–18.

SO168

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901; 17/6/1903, SD, p.998.

2. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.920; Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.246–47.

3. For details, see Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.920–23; Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.247–48.

SO169

1. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.923.

2. For the earlier position, see rulings of President Gould, 15/11/1907, SD, p.6092, and President Givens, 22/5/1918, SD, p.4895. For the ruling of President Kingsmill, which also lists some occasions in the 1920s when debate on the substantive subject matter of a paper on a motion for its printing did not raise objections, see 13/5/1931, SD, pp.1808–09. Odgers’ account of this on p.211 of the first edition of his book (1953) is another example of his reliance on the 1938 MS.

3. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for Fifty–Seventh Session, PP No. 2/1977, p.3; noted without debate, 15/3/1977, J.23.

4. Standing Orders Committee, First Report for 59th Session, PP No. 27/1978, pp.3–4.

5. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.923–26 for a fuller account of these developments.

6. The sessional order had been agreed to on 2/2/1994, J.1170–78.

7. For details, see SOs 55 and 57.

8. 13/2/1997, J.1442–45; J.1447.

SO170

1. See questions by Senators Cavanagh (ALP, SA) and Bishop (ALP, SA), 10/11/1976, SD, pp.1785, 1791, and statement by the President, 10/11/1976, SD, pp.1842–43. Also see entry on Odgers in the Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, Volume 3 (forthcoming).

2. Standing Orders Committee, First Report for the 57th Session 1976–77, PP No. 1/1977.

3. ibid., p.8.

4. 15/3/1977, J.21–22.

5. 15/3/1977, SD, pp.133–34.

Chapter 27 - Addresses to the Queen or the Governor-General

SO171

1. “King” in editions up to the 1966 edition. The alteration was made by clerical amendment.

2. For a list of addresses to the monarch up to 1979, see Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.933–34. Since then, there have been three addresses to the Queen, on the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1/9/1997, J.2371, 12/2/2002, J.54, 14/5/2002, J.312).

3. 9/11/1905, J.156; 23/11/1905, J.183; affirmed, 25/6/1914, J.103.

4. 14/4/1904, J.27.

5. 17/6/1914, J.86–88 and 18/6/1914, J.91–94.

6. 28/5/1931, J.292. This was a reference to the infamous transport workers’ regulations disputes, described in more detail in SO 86.

SO172

1. See SO 3 for practices in relation to the seconding of motions for an address-in-reply. Amendment recommended by the Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for the Sixtieth Session, PP No. 360/1981, pp.2, 7.

2. For example, see 22/9/2008, J.898.

Chapter 28 - Messages from the Governor-General

SO173

1. See South Australian House of Assembly, Standing Rules and Orders for Regulating the Public Business of the House of Assembly, Adelaide, 1897, SOs 244 to 248. Also see Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., Chapter XXVIII, Messages from the Governor-General.

2. 22/10/1903, J.241–42; 15/12/1904, J.192–93; 21/12/1905, J.258–60. Speeches delivered by the Governor-General on these occasions provide a summary of the legislative work of the Parliament during the session.

3. 15/2/1917, J.527. The ruling is reproduced in full in Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.947–48

4. Review of standing orders by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712, paragraph (19) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.5.

5. For example, a proclamation under s.60 of the Defence Act 1903 calling upon persons to serve in times of war.

6. Legislative Instruments Act 2003, ss.5, 44(2).

7. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.347–48.

8. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.331–32.

Chapter 29 - Visitors

SO174

1. 17/6/1903, SD, p.1000.

2. 17/6/1903, SD, p.1001.

3. Standing Orders Committee, First Report of the Forty-ninth Session, PP No. 244/1965.

4. J.164. Reproduced in Standing Orders and other orders of the Senate, February 2014, p.133.

SO175

1. 19/3/2003, J.1589.

2. Procedure Committee, First Report of 2003, PP No. 102/2003, see especially p.2.

3. 13/5/2003, J.1774.

4. 14/5/2003, J.1795.

5. Procedure Committee, Third report of 2009, PP No. 168/2009.

Chapter 30 - Witnesses

SO176

1. The case involved evidence given to the Joint Committee on Pecuniary Interests of Members of Parliament which alleged that Senator Webster (CP, Vic) was disqualified under s.44 of the Constitution. The information was reported to the Senate which referred the matter to the Court of Disputed Returns. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.871, 165–67.

2. See Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), paragraph (18) under “Proposed changes of content”, p.10.

3. According to Senator Gould (FT, NSW), witnesses to the select committee on the case of Major Carroll were examined on oath while witnesses to the select committee on the privilege case of Senator Neild were not; 20/20/1904, SD, p.5802.

4. The South Australian House of Assembly standing orders included a provision prohibiting the examination of witnesses on oath unless provided by law. Blackmore did not include it in his draft standing orders for the Senate. Between the South Australian Constitution’s adoption of the powers, privileges and immunities of the House of Commons as at 1854 (s.9) and the enactment of s.49 of the Commonwealth Constitution, the UK had enacted laws providing for the House of Commons to administer oaths and deal with recalcitrant witnesses. These statutory powers were part of the Commonwealth Parliament’s inheritance under s.49.

5. 20/10/1904, SD, p.5795.

6. 20/10/1904, J.115. Technically, this was the first referral of a bill to a standing or select committee and there was some discussion at the time of the mechanics involved. A second reading amendment to this effect, moved by Senator Higgs (ALP, Qld) was withdrawn and a motion was moved in accordance with SO 115(1), after the second reading had been agreed to. See 20/10/1904, SD, pp.5801, 5804.

7. Standing Orders Committee, Report on the Parliamentary Evidence Bill, PP No. S.6/1904; tabled 23/11/1904, J.148. Immediately after the report was presented, Senator Neild gave notice of a motion by leave which, although it appears to relate primarily to the select committee on the privilege case involving him, included a call for all evidence to Senate committees to be taken on oath or affirmation. Notice Paper for 24/11/1904, p.153. No action was taken on either matter before the Parliament was prorogued on 15/12/1904, J.192–93.

8. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.474–75.

9. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.552–53.

SO177

1. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (25) under “Proposed changes of form”, p.1.

SO178

1. The cases were as follows: Select Committee on Privilege – Case of Senator Lieut.Col. Neild, request for the attendance of Austin Chapman made and granted, 30/6/1904, J.70; Select Committee on the case of Major Carroll, request for attendance of Sir John Forrest made and granted, 30/6/1904, J.70; request for the attendance of Austin Chapman made and granted, 14/7/1904, J.76; Select Committee on the Press Cable Service, request for the attendance of Hugh Mahon made and granted 11/11/1909, J.195, 196; Select Committee on General Elections 1913, request for the attendance of Joseph Cook, Sir John Forrest, King O’Malley, Frank Anstey, David McGrath and Hugh Sinclair, made 29/10/1913, J.74, granted in respect of Messrs O’Malley, McGrath and Anstey, 31/10/1913, J.83; Select Committee on Case of Mr H. Chinn, request for the attendance of Joseph Cook and King O’Malley, made 31/10/1913, J.82, granted in respect of King O’Malley, 5/11/1913, J.87.

2. 7/3/2001, SD, p.22645–46.

SO179

1. Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.872.

2. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.544.

3. 7/3/2001, J.4043.

SO180

1. For details, see Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.551–52.

SO182

1. Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Barnes (ALP, Vic) explained “that the great anxiety of honourable senators to secure the utmost information possible to guide them wisely in dealing with the difficulties with which Australia is confronted has caused the Senate to decide to summon so eminent a citizen as Sir Robert Gibson to give evidence concerning matters relating to the Commonwealth Bank Bill”. 6/5/1931, SD, p.1615. This was a government gloss on an opposition initiative. 1/5/1931, J.274. Unfortunately, Edwards, who was Usher of the Black Rod at the time and a witness to these events, made no notes on these standing orders in the 1938 MS but he does mention the episode in Parliament and How It Works, pp.20–21, principally as an account of the suspension of Senator Dunn.

2. Notices of motion were given on two other occasions (both by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Murphy (ALP, NSW)) for witnesses to be called to the bar of the Senate: on 1/11/1967, J.299, for the Secretary of the Department of Air to answer questions about the VIP planes affair; and on 14/5/1969, appearing on the Notice Paper for 15/5/1969, p.2490, for the General Manager and Chairman of the Australian Wheat Board to answer questions on wheat sales to China.

3. 6/5/1931, J.275–76.

4. 6/5/1931, SD, p.1625.

5. 15/7/1975, J.827–28; SD, pp.2729–30. The text of the letters and a longer account of the proceedings is in Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.844–54. Also see Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., pp.607–08.

6. 16/7/1975, J.831.

7. 16/7/1975, J.832–33, SD, p.2764.

8. 16/7/1975, SD, pp.2765–93. The ministerial directions and claims of privilege were the subject of the second report of the Committee of Privileges, Report on Matters Referred by Senate Resolution of 17 July 1975, PP No. 215/1975. Guidelines for the appearance of government witnesses before parliamentary committees were subsequently developed with versions being tabled in the House of Representatives on 28/9/1978 and 23/8/1984.

9. 17/7/1975, J.835; 22/7/1975, J.839–40, SD, pp.2833–50.

SO183

1. 27/6/1996, J.423.

2. 27/6/1996, SD, p.2330–31.

Chapter 31 - Conduct of Senators and rules of debate

SO184

1. Ruling of President Givens, 5/3/1917, SD, p.10943.

2. 22/9/1916, SD, pp.8952–64; 23/6/1938, SD, pp.2582–89.

SO185

1. See remarks by Senator Clemons (FT, Tas), 17/6/1903, SD, p.1002. The debate continued till p.1009.

2. For example, an Appropriations (Parliamentary Departments) Bill, or the Parliamentary Service Bills 1997 and 1999.

3. Old SO 400 read: “Every Senator shall be uncovered when he enters or leaves the Chamber, or moves to any other part of the Chamber during the Debate, and shall; make obeisance to the Chair on entering or leaving the Chamber”.

4. See Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (22) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.6.

SO186

1. Tabled 12/9/1991, J.1512; PP No. 466/1991.

2. 5/6/1991, SD, p.4524.

3. The document was also included as Appendix C in the Procedure Committee’s Second Report of 1991, pp.12–13.

SO187

1. The Chairman of Committees, Senator Best, 17/6/1903, SD, p.1009. See also President Baker’s anecdote from the US Congress where, as a consequence of the absence of such a rule, professional speech writing emerged in Washington as an occupation. One speech writer wrote the same speech for at least three senators who delivered or attempted to deliver it!

2. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.245–46.

3. SD, 17/6/1903, p.1009.

4. SD, 17/6/1903, pp.1009–10.

5. 10/3/1943, J.303. SD, p.1402.

6. Ruling of President Baker, 26/7/1905, SD, pp.171–74.

7. Standing Orders Committee, Minutes of meeting, 12/5/1959. The term “copious notes” was used in a ruling of President Brown, 26/10/1949, SD, p.2011. President Lynch had earlier permitted reference to “extensive notes” (17/11/1932, SD, p.2462, 18/11/1932, SD, p.2572–73, 8/6/1933, SD, p.2193), and other Presidential rulings had referred simply to “notes”.

8. See Second Report for Fifty–Seventh Session, PP No. 2/1977, p.1.

9. First report for the Sixty–First Session,PP No. 117/1983, p.9. The exceptions were second reading speeches by the minister and first speakers on the bill for the Opposition or a minority group, ministerial statements and first speakers in response by the Opposition and any minority group, and first speakers on an MPI or Urgency motion under SO 75.

10. 6/9/1984, J.1087.

11. First Report of Sixty–Second Session,PP No. 504/1985, pp.3–4 and attachment B.

12. They were also a feature of Old Parliament House. In neither place are they permanent fixtures, being used on ordinary sitting days and removed for openings of Parliament.

SO189

1. 13–14/11/1918, SD, p.7682–762. Specified time limits did exist but were rare, for example, debate on an urgency motion under SO 75 as it was then framed.

2. See the entry on Senator Gardiner in Volume 1, Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, op. cit., p.48. Old SO 404 allowed a sick or infirm senator “by the special indulgence of the Senate” to speak while seated. It was deleted in the 1989 revision and left to practice.

3. J.296.

4. J.306.

5. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report, PP No. S.5/1919; tabled 7/8/1919, J.365.

6. 7/8/1919, SD, pp.11304–06; also see 13/8/1919, SD, pp.11504–05 and 11509.

7. 13/8/1919, SD, p.11512.

8. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.2/1922; tabled 4/10/1922, J.105; adopted 5/10/1922, J.107.

9. 25/11/1992, J.3107. The order remained in place for approximately 3½ weeks till the end of the 1992 sittings at 5.57.am on 18/12/1992. A general time limit of 20 minutes had been suggested by the Standing Orders Committee in its Fourth Report of the Sixty–Second Session (PP No.435/1986) but not acted on at the time.

10. 14/9/1992, J.2745. See SO 72.

11. See SO 52.

12. Procedure Committee, First Report of 1996, PP No. 194/1996.

13. The Standing Orders Committee’s Fourth Report of the Sixty–Second Session (PP No. 435/1986) proposed a reduction to 10 minutes of the time limit in committee of the whole but the report was not acted on.

SO192

1. Ruling of President Gould, 1/10/1909, SD, p.4021.

2. Ruling of President Sibraa, 20/4/1988, SD, p.1710.

SO193

1. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (24) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.6.

2. For example, a motion calling on Governor-General Hollingworth to resign, agreed to on 15/5/2003, J.1818–20.

3. See, for example, SOs 138 and 140 of the South Australian Legislative Assembly.

4. Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory website, under “Historical Background”, http://www.nt.gov.au/lant/about-parliament/history-of-nt-parliament.shtml#self (accessed 1/4/14).

5. Standing Orders Committee, Second Report for Fifty–Seventh Session, PP No.2/1977, pp.1–2.

6. Standing Orders Committee, Fifth Report for Fifty–ninth Session, PP No. 50/1980, p.5.

7. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (25) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.6.

8. 11/8/2009, SD, p.4419.

SO194

1. See the debate on the proposed amendment, 9/9/1909, SD, pp.3227–30; 10/9/1909, SD, pp.3306–11.

SO195

1. Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.7/1901, tabled 9/10/1901, p.40, marginal note to SO 408.

2. Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.274.

3. Ruling of President Calvert, 15/9/2003, SD, p.15079.

SO196

1. A term probably adopted from the increasingly familiar language of the US Congress, where it has a specific meaning.

2. See South Australian House of Assembly SO 143 (which also requires a “gag” motion to be supported by 7 other members before it is put), Victorian Legislative Assembly SO 78B and NSW Legislative Assembly SO 157.

3. That is, after the introduction of time limits on speeches in 1919; 22/8/1923, J.85. In this case another senator moved that Senator Findley (ALP, Vic) be further heard, which motion was negatived on division. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.355–56.

SO197

1. The latter motion is also known as the closure (see SO 199) which is a gag on debate rather than on an individual senator speaking

2. For significant rulings, see President Givens, 1/10/1920, SD, p.5234; 17/8/1922, SD, p.1426; President O’Byrne, 27/2/1975, SD, p.523; 16/10/1975, SD, p.1217.

3. Rulings of President Givens, 6/9/1917, SD, p.1711; 7/9/1917, SD, p.1816.

4. 8/10/1959, HRD, p.2012. Details of Hansard’s policy on interjections were published in House of Representatives Standing Committee of Privileges and Members’ Interests, Report on the issue of the exchange between the Member for Robertson and the Member for Indi on 28 May 2008 and the subsequent withdrawal and apology by the Member for Robertson on 29 May 2008, PP No. 499/2008, Appendix 5, pp.42–43.

5. 10/9/1909, SD, pp.3316–19.

6. See Appendix 7 for a list of published volumes of Presidents’ rulings.

7. See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.20.

8. See SO 18.

9. The Case of Senator Neild (FT, NSW) in 1904 is the only occasion when a select committee was established to inquire into a matter of privilege.

10. Review of standing orders by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712, paragraph (26) under “Proposed changes of Substance”, p.6. The right to question the President has now been codified by an amendment to SO 72, agreed to 10/3/2009, J.1657–58. See SO 72(2).

11. 24/11/1992, J.3076; Procedure Committee, First Report of 1996, PP No. 194/1996; adopted 13/2/1997, J.1447.

12. Review of standing orders by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712, paragraph (13) under “Proposed changes of Substance”, p.4.

13. 1/11/1957, J.135. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.216. This is one of many examples where Odgers drew heavily on the work of Edwards in the 1938 MS.

14. Josef Redlich, The Procedure of the House of Commons: a study of its history and present form, translated from the German by A Ernest Steinthal, with an introduction and a supplementary chapter by Sir Courtenay Ilbert, Clerk of the House of Commons, London, Archibald Constable & Co, 1908, Vol. III, p.63n. Editions were published in 1907 and 1908. Edwards probably consulted the Senate copy of the 1908 edition which remains in the departmental Resource Centre. The Parliamentary Library has a copy of the 1907 edition which cites the author by the anglicised first name “Joseph”.

SO198

1. See SO 197; 30/10/1908, J.60–61, SD, pp.1774–76.

2. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.1/1908, p.8; 10/9/1909, J.125–26; SD, pp.3311–12.

3. 10/9/1909, SD, p.3316. See pp.3311–16 for the debate generally. See the entry on Stewart in Volume 1, Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, op. cit., pp.100–03.

SO199

1. 18/6/1903, SD, p.1065.

2. 18/6/1903, SD, pp.1064–67. The phrase was used by Senator Neild on p.1067. Also see commentary on SO 53.

3. Debate on proposed standing order 273 occurred on 11/6/1903, SD, pp.778–86, 12/6/1903, SD, pp.862–75, 17/6/1903, pp.969–83. Senator Higgs (ALP, Qld) invoked John Stuart Mill on p.786.

4. 18/6/1903, SD, p.1068.

5. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (15) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.4. See SOs  142, 144 and 150 for other commentary on special majorities.

6. Standing Orders Committee, First Report, PP No. S.3/1934.

7. 1/8/1934, SD, pp.973–74.

8. 8/8/1940, J.74. The closure was moved on the question for the adjournment and was put and passed on the voices, but the Journals still records that more than 13 senators present voted in favour of the motion. An unofficial count must have been taken by the clerks.

9. For expressions of this principle in relation to the adjournment of debate (SO 201(6)), see rulings of President Baker, 10/10/1906, SD, p.6361–62 and President Givens, 17/9/1919, SD, p.12382 and 9/10/1919, SD, p.13211. Also see ruling of President Hogg, 12/3/2009, SD, p.1493 [proof].

10. Revised standing orders – Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 21/11/1989, J.2219, notes on amendment C.(15), pp.2, 4.

SO201

1. 11/5/1987, SD, pp.2547–48.

2. This had been confirmed as an alternative method as early as 1907 in a ruling of President Gould, to the effect that where leave had been granted to a senator to continue his remarks, it was not necessary to move the adjournment of the debate, simply to move a motion to fix a time for the resumption of debate. 25/7/1907, SD, p.974.

3. This last point was based on a ruling of President Turley, 13/12/1911, SD, p.4250. Also see the rulings cited in relation to SO 199(3).

4. Revised standing orders – Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 21/11/1989, J.2219, notes on amendment C.(15), pp.2, 4.

SO202

1. 6/9/1911, J.12.

2. 13/6/1951, J.12.

SO203

1. Recommended as such by the Standing Orders Committee, Fourth Report for Fifty–ninth Session,PP No.70/1979, pp.8–9; adopted without debate 23/8/1979, J.883–84.

2. This had been a stated intention of the Standing Orders Committee in developing a set of draft standing orders; 18/6/1903, SD, pp.1068–69. Edwards notes, however, that the opportunity to explain and apologise was missing from the standing orders of the House of Representatives and that, unlike in the Senate where repentance had frequently led to forgiveness and the restoration of harmony (the terminology is Edwards’), members of the House had been suspended for comparatively trifling offences.

3. “Naming” is the term used for reporting a senator as having committed an offence.

4. The phrase was used by Senator Gould (FT, NSW), 18/6/1903, SD, p.1069.

SO204

1. 18/6/1903, SD, pp.1069–73.

2. See the list of suspensions in Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.370–72. The penalty of one week for a second offence has been applied to senators on only four occasions, on one of which standing orders were suspended to reduce the penalty to the remainder of that day’s sitting. The penalty for a third offence has been applied only once by the House of Representatives; 28/8/1919, VP.506. See House of Representatives Practice, 5th ed., p.523. In 2003, there was a suggestion that a senator who had previously been suspended for the remainder of a sitting day should not attend the Senate for 7 sitting days following his purported suspension from a joint meeting of the Houses in October that year. The claim was not pressed. See Procedural Information Bulletin, No. 176, 11 November 2003, p.5 and 23/10/2003, J.2597.

3. Standing Orders Committee, Fifth Report for Fifty–ninth Session, PP No. 50/1980, pp.5–6.

4. 28/4/1981, J.213; SD, pp.1416–20.

5. Review of Standing Orders, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the first draft of the revised standing orders on 17/5/1988, J.712 (tabled paper no. 739), paragraph (27) under “Proposed changes of substance”, p.7.

SO205

1. Edwards mentions quarrels between Senator Lynch (Nat, WA) and Senator Pearce (Nat, WA) in 1926 in connection with the election of a President (1/7/1926, SD, pp.3681–83); and between Senator Crawford (UAP, Qld) and Senator Foll (UAP, Qld) in 1941 (2/7/1941, SD, pp.669–73). See entries on Lynch, Crawford and Foll in Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, Volume 2. Odgers refers to an incident in 1972 when a senator was allegedly threatened with assault during a division (see Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.376). A similar incident occurred in 1992 (11/11/1992, SD, p.2798). There have also been lawsuits between senators (see 27/6/1996, SD, pp.2330–31 and SO 183).

2. 12/10/2005, SD, pp.71–76.

SO206

1. 444.  If any Senator shall wilfully disobey any Order of the Senate, he may be ordered to attend in his place, or, if he is under suspension, at the Bar, to answer for his conduct; and unless his explanation [originally ‘excuses’ before amendment on adoption] be deemed satisfactory, the Senate may direct the Usher of the Black Rod to take such Senator into custody.

Chapter 32 - Disputed Returns

SO207

1. 10/6/1903, SD, pp.677–78; 17/6/1903, SD, p.997; see also Standing Orders Committee, Third Report, PP No. L.1/1901, p.32 for paragraph (1) as originally proposed and marginal notes on origins; see also Commonwealth Electoral Act 1902, Act No. 19 of 1902, Part XVI, Court of Disputed Returns.

2. 17/10/1907, J.155–56.

3. For an account of the Vardon and O’Loghlin case, see Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., pp.172–73; also see entries on those senators in the Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, Volume 1, pp.179–87; and Committee of Disputed Returns and Qualifications, Report upon the Petition of Joseph Vardon against the choice by the Parliament of South Australia of the Honorable J.V. O’Loghlin as a Senator, PP No. S.2/1907.

4. For an example, see 29/5/1996, J.251–53.

5. 22/9/1987, J.96–100. Also see SO 25.

6. 22/9/1987, SD, p.472.

7. Department of the Senate, Letterpress Book 1903–08, ff.628, 676, 695; 17/10/1907, J.155–56.

Chapter 33 - Effect and suspension of standing orders

SO208

1. 18/6/1903, SD, p.1072.

2. 15/7/1921, SD, pp.10148–49.

3. See Australian Senate Practice, 6th ed., p.117; Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 13th ed., p.35.

SO209

1. 21/5/1969, J.471. Special majorities were formerly required under SOs 142, 144, 150 and 199. Also see SOs 87 and 135.

2. Revised standing orders: Amendments to the draft tabled on 17 May 1988, memorandum by the Clerk of the Senate, tabled with the second draft of the revised standing orders on 1/11/1989, J.2194 (tabled paper no. 4242), notes on amendment C.(16), pp.2, 4.

3. 23/10/1987, SD, pp.1129–48.

4. 19/2/1988, J.504; SD, pp.318–21.

5. Select Committee on Legislation Procedures, Report, PP No. 398/1988, p.22.

6. For details of the history of the sessional orders incorporating the select committee’s recommendations, see SO 24A.

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