Speaker’s Rulings — Abortion Legislation Bill—Speeches

Members, tomorrow the House will be debating the Abortion Legislation Bill. The Business Committee has determined that the debate will be 2½ hours long and has left me with some flexibility as to the length of speeches. I thought it worth indicating to the House that a few speeches at the beginning will be 10-minute speeches, and after that we will revert to having five-minute speeches to allow more people to have an opportunity to speak. If there are individuals who think they have particular cases for having a 10-minute speech, it would be good to have some notice of that. But, generally, the normal practice of recognising seniority, making sure that we have a range of parties and views represented in the debate, and preference being given to people who have been seeking the call for some time and who have generally been present for the debate will all be factors that I take into account.