Urgent Debates Declined — COVID-19 Vaccination—Controller and Auditor-General Report on Nationwide Roll-out

I’ve received a letter from Chris Bishop seeking to debate, under Standing Order 399, the report of the Controller and Auditor-General on the preparations for the nationwide roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine. This is a particular matter of recent occurrence. There is no ministerial responsibility for the report of an Officer of Parliament because they are the responsibility of the Speaker—Speakers' rulings 201/6, 202/1, and 202/2. However, the Government including the ministry’s response to such a report could be the subject of an urgent debate application. Unfortunately, that request was not made.

However, it may be some consolation for the members to know that when considering an application for an urgent debate—or whether it’s relevant—it is relevant whether there are other parliamentary means of discussing the subject. In this instance, the member lodged an oral question, his leader asked supplementaries on it, and there is the opportunity in the general debate to raise it. The Budget debate commences tomorrow and is very wide ranging; it will offer the member an opportunity to debate the report and the Government’s response to it. For those reasons, the application is declined.