Questions to Chairs of Committees

The President referred to the committee the discussion which took place in the Senate on 28 August following a ruling on a question to a chair of a committee.

Standing order 72, in addition to providing for questions to ministers at question time, contains provisions for questions to other senators about business of which those senators have charge on the Notice Paper, and questions to chairs of committees.

The first provision, in paragraph (1) of standing order 72, has been in the standing orders since they were first adopted in 1903, and was designed to allow senators to ask other senators about the progress of their bills and other business they had initiated.  The provision for questions to chairs of committees is in paragraph (2) of standing order 72, and was adopted in 1975 after a practice of putting questions to chairs had developed to allow senators to ask committees about the progress of their inquiries.  Questions to chairs may be put only on notice or by leave; these restrictions were designed to safeguard a further restriction that chairs must answer only on behalf of their committees.

These provisions have seldom been used in modern times, and on the rare occasions when they are used, they are not used for their original intended purposes. 

Question time is now an occasion for questions to ministers.  The committee believes that the Senate should consider amending the standing orders to reflect that primary purpose of question time, and to abolish the provisions for questions to other senators and to chairs of committees.  The committee suggests that the Senate adopt this change as a temporary order until the end of 2008, after which the committee will review the change to ascertain whether it has caused any inconvenience to the Senate or senators, before recommending whether it should be adopted as a permanent change.

Attachment 3 shows the necessary amendments of the standing order, and the committee recommends that the amended standing order be adopted as a temporary order until the end of 2008.

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