Points of Order — Foreshore and Seabed Bill—Availability of Supplementary Order Paper

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Later in the day the House is expected to begin work on the Foreshore and Seabed Bill. Could I seek leave to ask the Leader of the House when he intends to make the very substantial 120-page Supplementary Order Paper available to the Opposition in order that we may appropriately participate in the debate?

The Supplementary Order Paper will be made available as soon as it is printed—it will go to the Bills Office. I will also be seeking leave, subsequently, once the copies are available, to table what is called a redline version of the bill, which will look like a report-back version of the bill, had the Fisheries and other Sea-related Legislation Committee been allowed to do its job properly.

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I think it would be worth the House taking a moment for the Leader of the House to explain exactly what he means by a redline version of the bill that would be as the select committee might have reported back. The fact is that the select committee did not report back.

This matter has been dealt with by the Business Committee, which the member has been at, over the last two meetings and he is well aware, therefore, of what I am talking about. I will be seeking leave to table a copy of the bill as originally introduced, with the amendments as in the Supplementary Order Paper, as if those amendments had been adopted by the select committee. The Committee, of course, will still consider the Supplementary Order Paper as the actual document in front of it, but the purpose of that redline copy would be to enable members to see and to read the amendments more clearly in relation to the substantive provisions—

💬 Hon Dr Nick Smith: What?

Dr Smith may find that disgraceful, but I think most members would find it will actually help in understanding the bill.