Parliamentary Procedure

Sittings and Business

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (11:01): I move:

That standing and sessional orders be and remain so far suspended as to enable the consideration of Private Members Business, Order of the Day No. 39, the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill, to take precedence over Government Business from 7.30pm on Wednesday 26 May and 7.30pm on Wednesday 9 June.

The SPEAKER: I have counted the house and, as there is an absolute majority of the whole number of members of the house, I accept the motion; is it seconded?

An honourable member: Yes, sir.

The SPEAKER: I will put the question at once.

Motion carried.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I certainly will not be canvassing the issues of the bill itself at the moment, but let me just say that—

The SPEAKER: I just indicate that I might have jumped the gun. I have put the question and the motion has been carried. If the minister would address the matter, there is a way in which that might be done and I will give the minister the opportunity, but the motion has been carried.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I do appreciate the support of the chamber. While I will not address the substance of the bill, let me just make it very clear that this is a challenging topic and I am sure that every single person in this chamber has wrestled with this topic. It is our government's very clear intention to put forward a process that allows every member of this chamber to have the chance to put their beliefs on the record and their vote on behalf of their electorate on the record.

To flesh this out, so that all members are aware of exactly what we are trying to do, what we are proposing is that on that first date, 26 May, from 7.30pm through until adjournment, this house will give every member who wants it the opportunity to give a second reading speech and then adjourn. It is also our intention that from 7.30pm until adjournment on Wednesday 9 June this house will go through the committee stage of that bill and ideally the third reading stage as well.

That is where the government would like to head. We accept that we need the support of the chamber to do that and we are very grateful for the support of the chamber on this suspension. Lastly, let me say that the government would like to offer the deputy leader, who has carriage of this bill on behalf of the Hon. Kyam Maher in the other place, the opportunity to give her second reading explanation tomorrow morning during private members' time. Immediately after that speech, we propose that debate would be adjourned and resumed at 7.30pm on 26 May.

The SPEAKER: Having provided the minister with that opportunity, I would afford it to the leader and perhaps any other member who might briefly wish to address this matter by way of explanation.

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (11:04): Thank you, Mr Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to make a few remarks on this. I think every South Australian by now has a degree of consciousness of the importance of this bill. Because of the upper house having made an historic decision to pass the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill, this house now has another opportunity to deal with it yet again. Upon that news breaking last week, there was a significant moment of pause within the community as they contemplated the prospect that this legislation—this law—may yet become reality. Certainly, on one interpretation of the public will, there is a sense that the will is there and that the time for this bill has come and it needs to be passed.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: Point of order: I suggest that the member now is not only straying from the topic but actually purporting to deal with the bill and the substance of the bill, which is a matter that is now going to be before us, so I would ask the member to be mindful of that.

The SPEAKER: I will not uphold the point of order for the moment. In the circumstances—and this is really a matter for which I take responsibility—the leader is addressing by way of explanation. The leader has the call and I am listening carefully.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: I was making remarks about the process. That news having broken, a significant statement was subsequently made on Thursday morning by the Premier of South Australia, which I think we should all be conscious of in this place. The Premier, in a written statement on Thursday, stated and I quote:

The Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) legislation currently before parliament is an emotional issue for the South Australian community. As the leader of this State I take my responsibility to have such legislation promptly resolved by the Parliament, one way or the other, seriously. This is an important issue and I do not want its consideration to be unduly delayed through parliamentary processes. That is why I have decided to progress debate on this legislation immediately. The community expects Parliament to act swiftly and decisively on issues that impact them and that is why I am allocating Government Business time to debate the legislation now that it has passed the Upper House.

They are the words of the Premier of South Australia and I think this chamber should be cognisant of the fact that that promise is now being broken. Why is that promise being broken? That promise is being broken by the Premier only four days after that promise has been made—

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: The leader will resume his seat.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: Again, this is debating a matter in relation to a process that the house has just agreed to do, so I question the merit of this.

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier will resume her seat. There is no point of order. I am alive to the words of the motion that has just been put and carries concerns regarding the giving of precedence over government time on two different dates. The leader is speaking in the circumstances by way of explanation. The leader has the call.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: The reason why we are here dealing with this motion is that the Premier has broken a promise that was without equivocation: it was in black and white. He has broken a promise to the people of this state, people who are looking to him. Indeed, they thought they were in receipt of leadership from him on this issue, until he rolled into the party room on Monday night and got rolled. So now here we are adopting a rather convoluted and abstract process that, hopefully, will ultimately see this issue resolved, but we should remember that is because the Premier has broken his promise. What we have is a Premier who was—

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order, sir.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: How many more times are we—

The SPEAKER: The leader will resume his seat. The Minister for Energy and Mining on a point of order.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: The leader, as well as reflecting on a vote of the house which has just passed, I submit to you is going way beyond the latitude that you should give him with regard to his comments on this suspension.

The SPEAKER: There is no occasion to reflect upon a vote of the house. In my consideration, what the leader has said so far does not amount to reflecting on a vote of the house. The leader is speaking by way of explanation in the circumstances of the motion. The leader has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: What we have here is a Premier who was happy to make promises but is clearly without conviction on delivering them. It would have been perfectly legitimate for the Premier to walk into the Liberal party room last night and say, 'I'm the member for Dunstan. I'm the Premier of South Australia. I won an election—'

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order, sir.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: How many more times are we going to do this?

The SPEAKER: The leader will resume his seat. The Minister for Energy and Mining on a point of order.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Again, I submit to you that the leader's suggestions about what should have happened in anybody's party room are nothing to do with this debate.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! I do not uphold the point of order. The leader has the call.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: The Premier could have walked into the party room last night and exercised the function of leadership. He spoke in his statement made last Thursday about the importance of leadership, the importance of this matter and 'that is why it should be dealt with immediately'. He could have honoured that promise. He could have walked into the party room and said, 'I'm the leader. I won an election. I've made a commitment in writing to the people of this state, and I expect my party room to allow me to honour that commitment.'

Instead he was too weak. His leadership was impotent when it was tested on a matter of supposed conviction. Now we find ourselves in a situation where this bill will now be debated after 7.30pm, late on Wednesdays and into the early hours of the morning, and we will not have a resolution until most likely sometime in June, if not substantially later. Of course, that is inconsistent—

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

Mr MALINAUSKAS: The Deputy Premier, not content with having her points of order ruled against consistently thus far, interjects and makes the point in terms of precedent. Well, the precedent, of course, for the last time that the state parliament dealt with a euthanasia bill was for it to be dealt with in government time—

The Hon. V.A. Chapman: In private members' time.

The SPEAKER: Deputy Premier!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: They do not like it, Mr Speaker; unlike question time, they do not like it when other people have their say and they have to listen. The last time the parliament dealt with this bill, as the Deputy Premier would well recall, it was dealt with in government time and the then member for Morphett Duncan McFetridge—

Mr Knoll: Get your facts straight. It was not.

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert! The member for Schubert will not interject and especially not from outside his seat.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: —was given the opportunity to deal with this as a private member's bill as private members' business in government time. I think every South Australian would know that this Premier made a commitment in writing on Thursday, and it was not—

The Hon. S.S. Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the Premier! The leader has the call.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: The Premier interjects, and I welcome the interjection because it is an opportunity to remind him of what he said on Thursday—

The Hon. S.S. Marshall interjecting:

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Yes, and I'm going to read it again:

That is why I have decided to progress…on this legislation immediately. The community expects parliament to act swiftly and decisively on issues that impact them, and that is why I am allocating government business time…

Well, this government has failed. He makes a commitment on Thursday and breaks it on Monday, because he has the inability to lead his own party room. And at the next election—

The Hon. S.S. Marshall: What is an 'ill ability'? Is that a new word?

The SPEAKER: Order, the Premier!

The Hon. S.S. Marshall: What's an 'ill ability'?

The SPEAKER: The Premier will cease interjecting.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: At the next election, when people can consider the promises that this Premier makes them, he will consider them—

The Hon. S.S. Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier is called to order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! The member for Wright! The leader has the call.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: This Premier, when he goes to the next election, will be making promises and the people will be able to make—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the Premier! The leader has the call.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: You know they are struggling. They break glass in case of emergency, roll out shop trading hours; break glass in case of emergency, offer fake laughter in the parliament in a way that tries to suggest that things are all under control.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: At the next election, when people contemplate the promises that are being made by this Premier, they will recall GlobeLink, they will recall the right-hand turn of the tram, they will recall the no privatisation agenda and they will recall the long list of promises that this Premier has made. But then they will reflect on his time in government and they will pause and reflect on the Premier's promise that he made on Thursday, only to have it broken on Monday.

People understand that when this Premier makes promises not only are they not likely to be kept but they are also promises that are subject to the approval of his party room, which he has an inability to lead—an inability to lead. If he understood the function of leadership, we would not be dealing with this bill in the format that we now are. The record is there for everyone to see and it is in black and white: promise on Thursday, breaking of promise on Monday. South Australians have been left wanting, South Australians who I think quite legitimately would have expected this parliament to deal with the bill in the way that the Premier first promised. I want to say something to that. Had the Premier—

The SPEAKER: Order! The time for an explanation has expired. I will give the leader a moment longer, but the leader will be brief.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: When the Premier made his promise on Thursday, that he was going to offer it at government time and do so expeditiously and immediately, that was a position I actually thought was the right thing to do. I thought—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier will cease interjecting.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: —that was a position that made sense. It is not yet too late for the Premier to change his mind again and allocate government time to this bill so that it will not be dealt with at 4 o'clock in the morning and will be dealt with appropriately.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: We have a leader who is weak and impotent and has an inability to actually execute the function of leadership—and South Australians who want to see this law reform are paying the price.

The SPEAKER: Order! The motion to suspend standing and sessional orders has been put and has been carried, and there have been contributions on both sides of the house by way of explanation.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!