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Business of the House

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Subjects -  Police: New South Wales; Riots; Road Safety
Speakers - Scully Mr Carl; Brogden Mr John; Speaker
Business - Suspension of Orders, Motion


    BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
Page: 14321


    Routine of Business: Suspension of Standing and Sessional Orders

    Mr CARL SCULLY (Smithfield—Minister for Police) [3.25 p.m.]: I move:

    That standing and sessional orders be suspended to provide for:

    (1) the notice for urgent consideration of the Leader of the Opposition to be considered at this sitting as a matter of public importance before private members' statements;

    (2) the following speaking time limits to apply:

    (a) Leader of the Opposition 10 minutes;
    (b) Member next speaking 10 minutes;
    (c) Member for Macquarie Fields 5 minutes;
    (d) One other member 5 minutes; and
    (e) Member in reply 5 minutes

    Clearly, the urgent motion of which the Leader of the Opposition has given notice is in breach of the standing orders in that it does not seek an opinion of the House. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition, who has been a member of this place for several years, should be aware that a member who moves an urgent motion seeks a decision of the House, and in that sense it is different from a matter of public importance.

    The Leader of the Opposition has given notice of the motion as a matter of public importance. I believe it is appropriate that the matter be debated. I look forward to hearing what the Leader of the Opposition has to say on the matter, as he would be looking forward to hearing what I have to say, and I welcome that debate. To protect the forms of the House, I believe it is appropriate to allow debate on the matter to proceed. However, the Leader of the Opposition has not given notice of the motion in the proper form. Mr Speaker, rather than allowing you to simply rule the motion out of order and not allow the debate to ensue, I have facilitated the Opposition by allowing the House to debate the matter.

    Mr JOHN BROGDEN (Pittwater—Leader of the Opposition) [3.26 p.m.]: This is an elaborate attempt by the Government not to vote against the Macquarie Fields motion that I put forward today. The reality is that the Government is embarrassed about this, and it knows that the motion that is more urgent is the Opposition's motion—not the union hack motion from the member for Drummoyne. But the Government does not want to debate that motion. What we want to debate are the words of the Premier today. The Premier said today in this House that he takes advice from operational police on the seat of Macquarie Fields. What do those operational police say? Let me quote from Superintendent Les Wales—

    Mr Carl Scully: Point of order: The Government would like to hear why the Leader of the Opposition believes that the motion for the suspension of standing orders should or should not proceed. If he wishes to put these matters on the record, he will have 10 minutes to do so.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! When the Leader of the Opposition gave notice of what he referred to as a motion for urgent consideration, I was concerned that it sought to do nothing other than make a statement. The procedures of this House provide that if a member wants to address a particular matter, he or she can raise it as a matter of public importance. I did not rule the notice out of order because I wanted to seek further advice about it, and the whole of question time was available in which to do that. Under the standing orders and the precedents of the House, the notice of motion clearly would have been out of order. As I understand it, the Leader of the House is now seeking to allow this matter to be discussed pursuant to the procedures of the House. The Leader of the Opposition may continue his presentation, and I ask him to note the comments I have made.

    Mr JOHN BROGDEN: Mr Speaker, the fact of the matter is that you, Minister Scully and the absent Premier did not want this issue to be forced to a vote. You did not want the Labor Party to have to vote against this important matter of public importance in favour of the union hack motion of the member for Drummoyne. Direct from Sussex Street we get a motion about union matters that are not a matter of urgency before this State. The reason why this matter is urgent, and the reason why this Government is embarrassed about it, is that the Government has been caught out.

    Police lives have been put at risk because of the failure to put in place an arrest on Saturday when a suspect presented himself to the police station. This matter should be discussed now. All the Government wants to do is allow the failing career of the member for Macquarie Fields to be given a little bit of a chance by giving him a chance at a vote today. If the Government wants to debate the matter then it should vote for urgency, instead of restricting the operation of this House in a manner that is out of the ordinary.

    The very simple choice that the House has is to put this matter to the vote, and by putting it to the vote we will find out what the Labor Party wants to do. But the Labor Party wants to have it both ways because it is very embarrassed about this issue; it is embarrassed about the fact that Sydney has been subjected to riots for the past four nights in a row because of a cover-up orchestrated by the Minister for Police and others. Rather than have the debate in prime time the Government wants to push it back to another time. We will debate this at any time and in any form.

    Motion agreed to.


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