Parliamentary Procedure

SITTINGS AND BUSINESS

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (12:00): I move:

That standing orders be so far suspended as to enable debate and discussion on private members' business, committees and subordinate legislation to be extended by a further 45 minutes.

In explanation of the motion, I believe there are a number of important motions standing on the Notice Paper that need to be brought to the attention—

Mrs Geraghty interjecting:

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: Well, I'm just a simple soul; I don't understand these things.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: There are important issues that are going to affect particularly people in rural and outback South Australia, which need to be brought to the attention of the house and which ought to be done today, not put off. Therefore, I have moved that the standing orders be suspended to enable this debate to take place for a further 45 minutes. The government is not pressed for time, because we are going home very early. It is a very minor request; it will allow these matters, which otherwise might not be debated, to be fully discussed and the foolishness of some of these proposals can be brought to the attention of the house.

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (12:02): I have to say, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the member has not raised this issue—certainly not with me or with anyone I am aware of on this side of the house—and we do have legislation before us that we need to deal with, so I oppose the member's motion.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I require an absolute majority of the house to accept the motion. I have counted the house and, as an absolute majority of the whole number of members of the house is not present, ring the bells.

An absolute majority of the whole number of members being present:

The SPEAKER: I accept the motion. Does the member for Stuart wish to speak to it?

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (12:06): Yes, Mr Speaker. It is a quite simple motion. The house is not pressed for time and there are important issues in private members' business that ought to be publicly aired and debated in this chamber. This is a mechanism to allow that to take place. We have only two bills this afternoon, I understand, in the committee stage; the house has been going home early; and a short extension of private members' time today would allow important issues to be publicly aired, as they should be. I would urge members to allow the house to do what it should do: debate issues of importance to the people of the state. The three items standing in my name are particularly important to drought-affected, stressed people, including volunteers, who will otherwise have their pockets plundered. Any attempt to prevent these debates taking place will be seen as a victory for the anti-rodeo, anti-rural sector, which is a small minority of extremists who have no regard for people in isolated parts of the state. Therefore, the house should have the ability to debate the matters in question.

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (12:07): As I indicated before, private members' time has expired. The member opposite could have come and discussed it with us to see if we could work through it. We have two bills on the Notice Paper, which should be dealt with today. If he had given us the courtesy of speaking to someone on this side—perhaps myself—maybe we could have accommodated him but he has just brought this matter on and, clearly, we have two bills, so I am afraid that we do not support the motion.

The house divided on the motion:

AYES (14)

NOES (28)

PAIRS (4)

Majority of 14 for the noes.

Motion thus negatived.