Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure

Reforms to parliamentary processes and procedures

Ordered to be printed 21 October 2010

Report – October 2010 i

Reforms to parliamentary processes and procedures

New South Wales Parliamentary Library cataloguing-in-publication data:

New South Wales. Parliament. Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure. Report on reforms to parliamentary processes and procedures / Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure, Parliament of New South Wales. [Sydney, N.S.W.] : the Committee, 2010. – [xi, 81] p. ; 30 cm. (Report ; no. 1).

Joint Chairs: The Hon. Richard Torbay MP and The Hon. Amanda Fazio MLC.

"Order to be printed"

“October 2010”

ISBN 9781920788339

1. New South Wales—Parliament—Rules and practice. 2. Parliamentary practice—New South Wales. 3. Legislative bodies—New South Wales. I. Title II. Fazio, Amanda. III. Torbay, Richard. IV. Series: New South Wales. Parliament. Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure. Report ; no. 1 328.944 (DDC22)

ii Report – October 2010

JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE ON PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE

How to contact the committee

Members of the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure can be contacted through the Committee Secretariat. Written correspondence and enquiries should be directed to:

Mr Russell Grove, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly

Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure

Parliament House, Macquarie Street

Sydney New South Wales 2000

Internet www.parliament.nsw.gov.au

Email Russell.Grove@ parliament.nsw.gov.au

Telephone (02) 9230 2222

Facsimile (02) 9230 2333

Report – October 2010 iii

Reforms to parliamentary processes and procedures

Terms of reference

(1) A joint select committee, to be known as the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure, be appointed to inquire and report into reforms to Parliamentary processes and procedures that are being proposed to be implemented by the Commonwealth Parliament.

(2) The committee is to consider the extent to which those proposed reforms have already been applied in New South Wales and, to the extent that they have not, to consider and recommend whether those or related reforms ought to be adopted in New South Wales, including, in particular:

(a) provisions for the Presiding Officers to be independent of the Government and, if the Presiding Officer is a member of the Government, for the Deputy Presiding Officer to be drawn from the Opposition;

(b) time limits that apply on questions and answers in Question Time in both Houses, and requirements for answers to be responsive and relevant to questions asked;

(c) the entitlement of Opposition leaders to ask supplementary questions;

(d) the time periods that are allocated to debates, Members’ speeches and to the consideration of private members’ bills;

(e) the oversight of bills by committees;

(f) the number of sitting weeks; and

(g) any related matters.

(3) The committee report on the outcome of any such inquiry within four weeks of the date of this resolution being agreed to by both Houses.

(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders of either House, the committee consist of 12 members, as follows:

(a) Six members of the Legislative Assembly of whom:

(i) three must be Government members, (ii) two must be Opposition members, (iii) one must be an independent member, and

(b) Six members of the Legislative Council of whom:

(i) one must be a Government member, (ii) two must be an Opposition members; (iii) two must be cross-bench members; and iv Report – October 2010

JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE ON PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE

(iv) one must be the President who is to be an ex official member.

(5) That the members be nominated in writing to the