House of Representatives
9 February 2022

I rise to support a report tabled in parliament today, Maintenance of the standing orders, by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure. While there are some big issues facing our nation, the work of this parliament can occur only with strong rules and strong recommendations, and I'm really pleased that this report provides the committee's reflections on various aspects of House procedure and how the standing orders have been operating over the past 2½ years. As the chair has gone through, the specific recommendations and the technical recommendations are intended to make the standing orders more reflective of current practice, improve consistency within the standing orders or remove redundant references. As we've heard, the report also adds some observations further to the committee's December 2020 report about the practices and procedures put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the third report that the committee has been working hard on, including my particular favourite regarding the reform of question time and of course dealing with the COVID pandemic. I'd like to thank the committee and the committee members, in particular the chair, for his outstanding leadership. The member for Bonner and I have had a very close working relationship, and I would like to say that this is the best committee of the parliament for its bipartisanship and clear working as well as its outcomes. Thank you to the committee secretariat for all their hard work and to all those members who participated. I commend the report to be House.