Page 2730 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 1993
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(3) The following temporary order be inserted after standing order 153:
When a vote may be taken.
153A. A vote shall not be proceeded with unless more than one Member has called for a vote. If one Member only calls for a vote, that Member's dissent shall be recorded in the Minutes of Proceedings and in Hansard.
The Administration and Procedures Committee believes that this is an appropriate way to ensure the efficient operation of this Assembly and that the rights of individual members are protected. I recommend to the Assembly the adoption of this report.
MR MOORE (10.47): In speaking to this proposal, I think it is important to understand the ramifications of the changes that will occur. The important part is that a member who wishes to have his or her vote recorded as a dissenting vote still has the right to have that vote recorded. I think that is the most important factor and, because of that, I am prepared to support this recommendation. I think it is important, though, that we make it a temporary standing order so that we can assess how it works.
Through this procedure we do lose the prerogative to flush out somebody from either the Opposition or the Government when a vote is taken. A single member wishing to force another member to vote, so that that person's vote is recorded, will not be able to do that. That prerogative will now be lost. It seems to me that that is the issue to be considered. On balance, I think it is appropriate that we go this way. That loss is not of such significance as to outweigh the nuisance value of a single member forcing us to a vote, and on many occasions having to wait five minutes while the bells ring, in order to make a point. Madam Speaker, I take pleasure, being part of the committee, in recommending this change, which was really initiated by Mr Cornwell.
MR CORNWELL (10.49): I would like to support the committee's recommendations. I believe that this is a satisfactory compromise on what I see as being a very time consuming, time wasting exercise so far as this Assembly is concerned. As Mr Moore has said, it can sometimes take up to five minutes to get a vote decided in the Assembly which may produce a 16:1 result. I notice from the appendix attached to this report that there were something like 24 occasions when the vote was 16 or 15 or 14 to one. I do not wish to deny any person the right to express their views in this Assembly or, indeed, to have the information recorded; but on 24 occasions only one member was either in favour of or against a particular motion. If each vote takes roughly five minutes, that is 120 minutes, or a couple of hours, over the duration of the Assembly, and I believe that that is an unnecessary waste of the Assembly's time.
I commend the committee for bringing down this report. I also commend them for putting my original motion on hold, if you like, to see whether it was necessary to take action. I believe that the motion I put forward has been vindicated, and I am very satisfied with the compromise that has been reached.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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