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The Business of Parliament in History.Pdf The business of Parliament in history June 2010 In the past 150 years the way in which Parliament has conducted its business has changed greatly. The length of time Parliament sits, the hours it sits for, and the ways it deals with business are very different now from in the past. This is the result of the changing role of Parliament and its MPs. An MP from the 1850s who stepped into the twenty-first century chamber would find it a very unfamiliar place indeed. (This paper looks at the House of Representatives although much of the discussion applies equally to the upper house of the Legislative Council which existed from 1854 until 1950.) 1. Sessions and sittings Today Parliament works all-year-round. In the past Parliament was usually summoned mid-year to approve the following year’s money. Sessions were annual in those days. They would last two or three months over the winter. This was the slack time for farms and businesses and 1 suited many MPs. By the end of the nineteenth century sessions extended into December as parliamentary business expanded. For much of the twentieth century the traditional mid-year opening remained. With business increasing, daily sittings became long and arduous and there was a tremendous rush of business at the end of the session. Many less important bills had to be dumped at the last minute. From 1984 the traditional sessional pattern was abandoned as a result of pressure to start earlier and for the session to have periodic adjournments to cater better for family life. Parliament now worked through much of the year. From the mid 1990s the pattern has developed for sessions to last the full term of the Parliament. Opening of Parliament The opening of Parliament is one element that has not greatly changed over the years. It retains its traditional form. The Governor-General summons Parliament by proclamation and authorises commissioners to attend to declare Parliament open. Then MPs are sworn-in and the House elects a Speaker who is confirmed by the Governor-General. The State Opening of Parliament follows on the second day of a new Parliament. The Governor-General gives a speech (the ‘Speech from the Throne’) to the House, following his/her ceremonial arrival at Parliament. This speech presents the Government’s policies and legislative programme. The Address in Reply is the formal response of the House to the Speech from the Throne. It was originally cast in the form of an expression of loyalty to the Crown with a motion addressing the matters raised. In 1862 it became a debate on a simple motion that an Address be presented to the Governor. The Address in Reply debate is the opening debate for the session in which the Government advances its policies and the Opposition criticises them. In the past the Opposition would introduce motions amending the Address as a test of confidence in the Government. It is traditional for two new MPs from the government side to move and second the Address in Reply as their maiden speeches. Prior to the abandonment of annual sessions in the 1990s the Speech from the Throne and Address in Reply were annual events. Now they take place at the beginning of the three-yearly parliamentary session. The Prime Minister makes an equivalent statement about the government’s programme at the start of the second and third years of the session. 2 The Prayer Each sitting day the House opens with a prayer. Some MPs in the first session of Parliament in Auckland in 1854 thought that a prayer suggested there was a state religion, and Roman Catholics were concerned about what prayer would be used. The discussion gave rise to the very first vote in the House. In the end, the House accepted that prayers were common in other countries. Speaker Charles Clifford (himself a Catholic) declared that the first clergyman who could be found, whatever his denomination, should be invited into the House to say the prayer. He had quietly arranged for his Anglican reverend friend to wait outside the House. The clerygman was called in and said the prayer – problem solved. Later a committee drew up a suitable form of prayer which was adopted by the House. In time it became a standing joke that ‘the Speaker entered the House, looked to the right, then to the left, and prayed for the country’. The prayer agreed to in 1854 continued in use until the turn of the century when a prayer based more on the House of Commons’ prayer was adopted. This form of the prayer was revised in 1962 and is still used today when the Speaker opens proceedings. Attendance Until recent times the presence of a quorum of a specified number of MPs has been required for sittings to take place. It was the Government’s responsibility to maintain a quorum so that its business would proceed. This requirement was removed in 1996 with the introduction of MMP (Mixed Member Proportional representation) and new standing orders. It was argued that a quorum should not be the responsibility solely of a Government. However, any shared responsibility would likely frustrate the business of Parliament. Now only the presence of at least one Government minister is required. These days we take it for granted that MPs will attend to their duties, but this was not always the case. In the early years of Parliament failure to attend sittings or even to come to Auckland to attend the session was common. In 1862 Captain Thomas Fraser lost his Otago seat because he had been absent for the entire session. He had been elected almost by accident when no-one else turned up for the election and he chose to sail to England rather than attend the session in Auckland. Resignations of those just elected were not unusual. Many MPs found the travel arduous, others found their businesses more compelling and on occasion organised boycotts occurred. A practice developed of MPs not turning up for the first weeks, as they believed that little was done at the start of a session. Desertions late in the session were also frequent as MPs wanted to catch an available steamer home. During the 1858 session the many absences, resignations and a boycott by most Wellington MPs made it extremely difficult to obtain a quorum, at that time fifteen MPs. As a result during the following session of 1860 the Speaker ruled that the procedure for establishing a quorum should follow that of the House of Commons. The division bell would be sounded and the sand- glass turned, giving MPs two minutes to return to the House before a count was taken. Attendance remained a problem and the Speaker had to adjourn the House for lack of a quorum on a number of occasions. It was agreed that a roll should be taken and that those who incurred lengthy absences should forfeit their daily allowance. With the shift to Wellington in 1865 and better steamer services attendance at Parliament improved. A roll of members was taken until 1999. The emergence of parties in the House from the 1890s and more organised ‘pairing’ by party whips (see below) regularised the attendance of MPs. If there were not enough MPs in the 3 chamber it was now more a matter of a party’s deliberate actions in walking out of the chamber than it was of poor attendance. Apart from the recent unexpected adjournment of the House in 2005 (because no minister was present), the last such adjournment was in 1905. Sitting hours Today the House sits from 2 pm to 10.00 pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and from 2 pm to 6 pm on Thursdays. When required the House can sit on other days of the week and on Saturdays but not on Sundays. Sitting hours have altered considerably over time in response to the changing patterns of business and MPs’ travel needs. In the early years the House sat from noon on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and from 5 pm on Wednesdays for non-Government business of backbench MPs. Sittings carried on into the evening until the Government deemed that it should rise – and this could be late indeed. Mondays were traditionally reserved for the Government to get on with its executive business and Saturdays were usually free, but neither day was exempt from extended sittings when the Government felt the need. On one occasion in 1863 the House continued beyond the accepted boundary of midnight Saturday to 3 am on Sunday morning. From the mid 1860s, as Government activity grew, the House began to start later, from early afternoon. This practice has continued to this day. Attempts to introduce daytime sittings starting earlier have proved futile. This meant that the House would often sit to midnight or even later, especially at the tail end of the session when there was a lot of business to get through or if the Opposition obstructed business by filibustering (stonewalling). The practice of filibustering (or stonewalling as it used to be known) remains the Opposition’s chief method of registering its protest at Government measures. In the past, business would be brought to a standstill by using the standing orders and speaking opportunities to create endless delay. The House lacked the kind of restrictions that limited this practice. Stonewalling was a feature of sessions and progress could be held up for days if not weeks. In order to deal with this the House has over time adopted time limits on speeches, urgency for Government business and the closure of debate.
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