Speaker’s Rulings — Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill—Voting

The House is resumed. Members, following discussions at the Business Committee today, I want to inform you about how the House will handle voting over the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill. The National Party has indicated that it intends to treat all future votes on the bill as a conscience issue. No other party has indicated that it is doing so, and, in fact, it was treated as a party vote matter at the first reading. Normally, I would allow a personal vote in such circumstances. However, we need to consider how to maintain physical distancing in the debating chamber and lobbies and personal voting makes that challenging.

At the Business Committee, we agreed to use split party voting—as set out in Standing Order 145—on the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill. Split party voting, effectively, allows members to vote individually but their votes are aggregated by their parties and cast during the party voting process. Parties splitting their votes indicate to the Clerk, when called on, how many votes they wish to cast for or against the question and any abstentions. They then provide the Clerk with a list showing how the vote of each member of the party was cast. These votes are recorded in the Journals of the House and in the Hansard.

When we get to the committee of the whole House stage, there will be multiple votes because the bill is in three parts and there may be amendments proposed. Casting split party votes on amendments is more challenging logistically. I would encourage any member planning amendments to release them as a Supplementary Order Paper as soon as possible so others can consider their positions.

If a member is not sure how they will vote until they have heard the debate or wishes to react to amendments as they are presented, I encourage them to be in the Chamber for the debate subject to the limits on numbers. They can then instruct their whip how they wish to cast their vote. Standing Order 145 also enables members to cast their votes as individuals, separately from their parties, if they so wish. That might be useful in the more dynamic committee stage of the whole House environment. Such votes are cast by a member rising in their place and indicating how they wish to vote when the Clerk calls for any other votes. Clearly, before members do that, they have to indicate to their party whip that they do not want to be included within the other numbers.

The House seldom uses split party votes. Presiding officers will proceed more slowly than usual with votes to ensure that parties are ready to cast them. So members will have to give a little bit of patience to the whips in order to get their ducks in a row so that we get the system working well.