Speaker’s Rulings — Select Committees—Minority Views

Members have raised with me a growing reluctance in some select committees to allow minority views to be included in committee reports.

Select committee reports to the House are an essential part of our parliamentary system of government. The House delegates to committees the role of investigating, consulting on, and scrutinising matters on its behalf. Committee reports inform the House of the result of those activities, of the different perspectives of members, and of recommended changes. In a unicameral Parliament, select committee scrutiny is the only detailed parliamentary scrutiny given to the business of the House.

There is a strong convention that differing views of members should be fairly reflected in select committee reports. In 2011, the Standing Orders Committee stopped short of requiring the inclusion of minority views because it would deprive committees of the right to control the form and content of their reports. However, the Standing Orders Committee stated that there is a strong presumption that differing views should be fairly reflected in reports, and members who are in a minority have a legitimate expectation that all reasonable steps will be taken to ensure this occurs. A minority view should only be excluded, as a last resort, where the text provided is significantly misleading or intemperate. This is a matter for the committee as a whole to judge, rather than solely the role of the chairperson.

The chairperson has a duty, in presiding over the committee, to lead it towards finding agreement on minority views. I would remind members of the findings on the role of the chairperson made by the Standing Orders Committee in its 2017 report. The chair has a responsibility to ensure that the legitimate expectations of Government and non-Government members are accommodated; and reports properly crystallise the outcomes of committee consideration and allow the expression of differing views.

Where a minority view is excluded from a committee report, then the report should note that fact and should direct readers to a source for the minority view. That would allow readers to judge its merits.

I encourage members of committees to work constructively with each other to ensure that all views are fairly reflected in their reports.

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, the issue that you’ve raised is a very, very important one. It’s important to note that in this Parliament a number of select committees are, in fact, tied select committees, so there is no majority report in many cases, because if the committee is unable to find a majority for a majority report, then bills get reported back with no amendment, effectively. And it would seem to me rather odd if we ended up in a situation where we had a minority view but no majority report, which is what we could end up with if we moved to a position where a minority view was expected by default.

And if the committee cannot come to an agreement and a bill is reported back without a report—automatically reported back—then there will be no minority view, because there’s no select committee report. So that matter is taken care of fairly easily, I think.