Urgent Debates Declined — COVID-19 Response—Testing, Processing Delays

I have received a letter from Chris Bishop seeking to debate under Standing Order 399 the delay in processing COVID-19 tests, which was reported yesterday. This is a matter of recent occurrence for which there is ministerial responsibility. In considering an application for an urgent debate, it is relevant whether there are other parliamentary means of debating the subject. In this instance, the member has lodged an oral question about it and could take an opportunity in the general debate to raise it. For those reasons, the application is declined.