Parliamentary Procedure

Sittings and Business

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (19:30): On indulgence—and I mean this with all due respect, sir; the opposition has no question over the way the Chair has conducted itself—the record will show that the Leader of Government Business moved that the house adjourn. There is a procedure within standing orders for adjourning the house for an unusual return to the parliament. That procedure was not followed.

There remains a question mark over the proceedings following tonight, including privilege, the legality of amendments moved tonight, the proceedings of the committee that we are about to enter into and the discussions on the contingent motion that the member for Florey will move. There is a cloud hanging over the house tonight. I wish to make it very clear to you that the opposition does not hold the Chair responsible for any of this. The opposition believes that the Chair acted on the motion presented before it. The house acted on that motion, and the house was adjourned.

I do not know how the house can rescind a motion of adjournment. I think we are in unprecedented waters. I have been instructed by the Leader of the Opposition, on indulgence and in deference to you, to accept the will that you have given us, but we retain the right for redress in other bodies on what may occur this evening, given we believe that potentially the house is constituted illegally, that is, unconstitutionally—that is, the house is just a building with a group of people talking about some amendments but is not constituted as the parliament.

I do not know if that requires some retrospective motion from the floor or what the remedy is, but the opposition lays out its concerns, especially with standing orders 57 and 56, which lay out in clear detail that a minister at any time may adjourn the house. That occurred, and 57, the procedure for a minister to adjourn the house and return it to its sitting at an earlier or unusual time, was not followed; 56 was. The house was adjourned. Again, sir, in deference to you, the opposition lays out its concerns and reserves its rights. We are in your hands.

The SPEAKER (19:32): I appreciate the member for West Torrens' comments. I have sought the advice of the Clerk at my end. I have also reviewed the footage. I can say, with great humility in response to the member's comments, that I refer the member to my comments made in the house prior to the dinner break, when I indicated that the motion that was put to the house to adjourn to 7.30 was misspoken. It was misspoken, and it was pointed out then and there. It should have been to suspend until 7.30pm.

I believe that the intent of that motion was clear and was to enable the house to resume sitting at 7.30pm tonight to account for the extended sitting beyond 6pm that was caused by the division. If it is being proposed that the misspoken motion be accepted, what is being accepted was otherwise. I do not believe it was the will of the house to adjourn but to suspend the sitting to 7.30pm. I sincerely apologise for any confusion that this may have caused. It is not an excuse, but there were interjections, and I was also somewhat distracted by those. I do apologise sincerely for any confusion that it may have caused.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: You have made no error, sir. The Speaker has made no error.