Standing Orders Committee: 125th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (11:11): I move:

That the first report of the committee for the Fifty Fourth Parliament, entitled 'Response to the interim report of the Joint Committee on the 125th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage', be noted.

I refer to the first report of the House of Assembly Standing Orders Committee, on the response to the interim report of the Joint Committee on the 125^th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage, which was laid on the table on 18 March 2021. I thank the then Speaker, the Hon. Vincent Tarzia, for his consideration and I thank the member for Enfield, the member for Newland, the member for King and the member for Kaurna for their deliberations in consideration of these matters and in particular a recommendation of the Joint Committee on the 125^th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage.

That report outlines the need to consider the capacity for infants to be able to be in the chamber and, secondly, that there be provision for maternity leave—that is, leave of absence—which would otherwise require a resolution of the house, for more than 12 days. With that, I indicate that I will present a contingent notice of motion to adopt forthwith the recommendations regarding leave of absence and no stranger admitted to the body of the house.

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (11:13): I take pleasure in speaking in relation to this first report of this session of parliament from the Standing Orders Committee, specifically looking at how we can improve our standing orders in this place specifically around matters of caring for infants but also when members become pregnant and need maternity leave. These are matters that were first raised by the parliament following the select committee that we had for the 125^th anniversary of women's suffrage in South Australia.

As part of that committee report there was a recommendation that both houses of parliament examine their standing orders for how women's participation can be improved. This is, of course, a very topical issue at the moment; it is something we should be doing everything we possibly can on. This was recommended towards the end of 2019. I believe it was first put on the agenda of the Standing Orders Committee in October 2019, so it has taken 18 months for us to get to these very sensible but minimal changes to our standing orders being brought to the parliament today.

I support those changes, but I am concerned at the length of time it took us to bring them here today. There were a number of occasions, particularly after the report had been finalised, when meetings were cancelled at the last minute and we could not finalise this report and bring it to the parliament. It is good this has happened now and we can move forward on these changes.

This will allow infants to be brought into the chamber to be cared for, firstly, obviously, for breastfeeding, but also for other caring for infants that may need to occur. We have all seen scenes from our federal parliament and other state parliaments, from the New Zealand parliament, where members of parliament have cared for infants on the floor of parliament, breastfed infants. We all understand the difficulties involved in caring for infants and being a member in this place, so hopefully this will go one step towards making that easier and improving the ability of women to participate in the house as well as run for and get elected to parliament.

The second issue looks at the fact that, at the moment, if someone were to take maternity leave they would need a motion passed by the house to enable that to occur. I certainly took the position, which was supported by the committee, that it is unreasonable that a woman in that situation would have to submit herself for approval of the house to be able to take maternity leave in the same way that would be automatic if she were a public servant. I am glad the committee has endorsed this; hopefully, the house will endorse that change as well.

Obviously any other absences for extended periods would be approved by the house in the normal way, but an absence for maternity leave, consistent with the length of time available for a South Australian public servant, would be an automatic approval. However, I do not think it will be the end of the matter when these are approved today. There is a lot more that needs to be done, and this is really just a first step.

For some time, we on the Standing Orders Committee have been talking around the work-life balance of sitting times in this house, and the parliament previously had a committee chaired by the former member for Hartley the Hon. Grace Portolesi. Members may not remember now, but parliament used to start at 2 o'clock, like the Legislative Council starts at 2.15. Bringing that start earlier has certainly aided the family-friendly arrangements of the house, but there is more that can be done.

In particular, a point I have been raising, and one the member for Enfield has been raising as well, is that one of the key issues for anybody who has kids or who cares for a family member is the uncertainty around the sitting times. It becomes quite a difficult matter in terms of putting those care arrangements in place to enable you to continue your parliamentary duties. Getting a set of standing orders that would help make that planning as easy as possible would go a long way to improve that.

I think, though, that however good standing orders are there would need to be cooperation between the parties—and most significantly from the government, who has the most number of seats in the house even though it is in minority now—to enable that to work in a cooperative way; otherwise, there would be last-minute changes and movements to suspend standing orders to sit later. No matter what you put in standing orders, if you suspend those standing orders then people's plans can still be thrown up in the air.

It is also very important to remember that when we do have those unexpected late sittings, it is not just us as members of parliament who are affected. There are so many people who work here in the house who are affected by that as well: obviously our parliamentary staff, our Hansard staff, library staff, catering staff, security staff. The flow-on effects are significant.

Hopefully, we will continue the work on the Standing Orders Committee to put that in place, or at least make some improvements to make that easier. However, it will require proper cooperation, particularly from the government of the day, to make sure it actually works in practice so that it is easier for people caring for others to be able to better plan ahead regarding what their time commitments in this parliament are going to be. That is not to mention the fact that I do not think all South Australians think that we make our best decisions at 2 o'clock in the morning compared with a proper sitting structure.

Last but not least, the other piece of work that the Standing Orders Committee has been looking at has been around reform to electronic petitions. This matter was first put on the agenda by the member for Hartley, who was the previous Speaker. When he took the chair, he outlined this as one of his priorities. There is a system ready to go; there are plans ready to go. Essentially, the government is still in discussions about whether they want to proceed down this path, but this matter has been up for consideration and ready to go for the best part of two years now.

I endorse these changes. I think they will make a difference, but this is just one of a huge number of steps that need to take place to improve our standing orders and also how the parliament works. The member for Reynell has been pushing for some time for improved facilities in the parliament, particularly in relation to breastfeeding and women's toilets, which have not really picked up since the 1890s when this side of the house was built. Of course, they are outside the scope of the Standing Orders Committee, but hopefully through you, sir, and the learned people on the JPSC, all those matters will be under consideration and attended to.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (11:21): I thank the member for Kaurna for his indication of support to this motion on behalf of the opposition.

Motion carried.