Speaker’s Rulings — Committee of the Whole House—Motions to Report Progress

Yesterday the Committee sought my ruling on the moving of motions to report progress, a motion to do just that having been defeated by the Committee of the whole House on the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill.

The House has a fundamental principle that having once dealt with a matter, it refrains from raising it again. Standing Order 260 establishes this principle as a rule for bills, amendments, or instructions proposed that are substantially the same in effect as ones that have already been agreed to or defeated. Clearly, where a Committee has defeated a motion to report progress and another motion to report progress is moved immediately thereafter, it simply raises again the matter the Committee has already resolved.

However, motions that progress be reported during the Committee stage do not always raise the same considerations. The rejection of such a motion in one circumstance does not presuppose that it may be similarly rejected in a new Committee on a different day, or during the consideration of a different provision of the bill.

Therefore, a motion to report progress moved pursuant to Standing Order 177(1) having been defeated by the Committee, a further motion to report progress may not be moved while the procedural circumstances remain unchanged—in other words, while that Committee continues to consider the same substantive question proposed by the Chair.