Parliamentary Procedure

Sittings and Business

The PRESIDENT (14:44): Before we move on to questions without notice, members may recall that in January the Hon. Robert Simms raised the issue of chamber numbers, questions, question allocation, and appropriate fairness, along with the support of members of the crossbench. I have given due consideration to the Hon. Mr Simms' and the crossbenchers' request and have determined to implement a minor tweak to the question time order.

What it will be is: three questions from the opposition, one from the government, two from the crossbench, which is the change, and then back to one opposition, one government, one crossbench and so on. I will monitor the effectiveness of the change and adjust, if necessary, to ensure fairness to all members.