Points of Order — Parliamentary Membership—Labour Party

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I wish to raise a question about the order of the House—I did not want to interrupt question time—under Standing Order 35, and invite you to make a Speaker’s ruling about Standing Order 35. Standing Order 35 states that a party must inform the Speaker of its parliamentary membership. The Speaker must be informed of any change in those matters. You have advised the House that you have not been advised of the change in membership, but the whole House saw the Clerk advise you that the Labour Party vote was one too many.

It would appear that there has actually been a change in the Labour Party membership. Standing Order 35 requires a party to advise that change promptly. The reason for that is obvious, because things like funding and the like follow a statement by the party under Standing Order 35. If a party did not have to advise promptly, it could fail to tell the House that there had been a change for maybe—what is it—16 months to the next election, and then say: “By the way, there has been a change.” I think we need to have a ruling from you that if a party is aware that there has been a change in its membership, then the Speaker should be advised immediately of that fact.

I think the member has made a perfectly fair and accurate point that once a party has been notified of a change, it should notify the Speaker of that change—for the reasons raised by the member. In the particular case being referred to, of course, the Labour Party has not received any official notification of a change in its membership. In a situation where public statements have been made to the contrary, we took the cautious position of voting 51. It subsequently turns out that we are still entitled to 52 votes.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: I refer members to Speaker’s ruling 5/7. The Speaker acts on formal advice and does not take the initiative. How members conduct themselves politically is a matter for them to determine.