Speaker’s Rulings — Bills, Members’—Preliminary Ballot

Honourable members, on Thursday last week the senior Labour whip raised a point of order about the preliminary ballot for members’ bills that are the same or substantially the same. Standing Order 277 provides for a ballot to be held when fewer than eight orders of the day for the first readings of members’ bills are available for consideration. If the Clerk receives notices of proposal for two or more bills that are the same or substantially the same in substance, the notice to be entered in the ballot is determined by preliminary ballot conducted by the Clerk. The purpose of the same question rule is to promote effective use of House time by preventing a proposition having the same effect from being brought up again. Speaker’s ruling 103/1 establishes the principle for questions that are the same or substantially the same, and that is “having the same effect”.

The senior Labour whip raised whether two bills that seek to achieve the same outcome but by different means are in fact the same in substance. Each case has to be judged on its merits. It is possible that the policies proposed to achieve an outcome could be so different as to merit the House allocating time to consider both proposals separately. In such circumstances the scope rules may provide useful guidance. If the difference between the policy proposals is one that could be bridged by an amendment that is within scope, then the bills can be considered substantially the same. In such a case the proper course is for a preliminary ballot to be conducted. Should the successful bill be introduced, the member responsible for the unsuccessful bill would be at liberty to propose an amendment to the introduced bill addressing the proposal in his or her bill.