Points of Order — Urgent Debates—Criteria

I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I wonder whether you would consider giving the House a written consideration of what you think constitutes the aspect of “importance” when it comes to snap debates. Given the way in which the issue around the Telecom leak has progressed over the last number of days, I think it would be helpful for us to know what you would consider the matter of importance to be and what criteria you would use. We note that you indicated last week that the request for a debate met a number of conditions but fell short on that point.

I suggest strongly to you that that would not be an appropriate course of action for you to follow, for a very simple reason. On this matter, the decision by the Speaker is final, and there is no possibility of debate around that decision. While there is a set of criteria that must be met in the first instance—whether it involves the responsibility of a Minister etc.—at the end of the day, the question of whether time should be set aside by the House is a matter for decision solely by you. If you start laying out supposedly objective criteria as to the means by which that decision has been arrived at, it could be for only one purpose—for people to question the application of those criteria.

Please accept that we are not relitigating your decision. We are aware that at some point the State Services Commission will bring out a report that may or may not be presented to Parliament. It will most certainly be in the public arena. At that point, we would need to know whether that constituted a matter of significant importance, such that it would merit a debate in the House.

I thank members for their contributions. As I indicated at the time, the decision was made after consideration of both the Standing Orders and Speakers’ rulings. For the assistance of members, however, I suggest that they refer to Speakers’ rulings 165/2 through to 165/6, and also 166/1 and 166/5. Of course, I will give serious consideration to any application that is made for an urgent debate.