Next Sitting and Standing Committees

When does the Legislative Assembly next meet?
The next meeting of the Legislative Assembly is on Wednesday 1 June 2011 with a second meeting scheduled in June for the 22nd. The Notice Paper for the 1 June sitting can be found on www.info.gov.nf under the heading Assembly Matters and in The Norfolk Islander and in Norfolk Online.

Assembly Procedure
Responding to last week’s request for more background on Assembly procedure this week we will talk about Committees and the role they play in the parliamentary process. Committees are established both by the standing orders or by resolution of the House.

Norfolk’s Standing Orders provide for two types of committees. Standing Committees and Select Committees. Standing Committees are appointed for the life of a Parliament and have a continuing role. Select Committees are formed for a specific purpose and cease to exist when they have presented their final reports. This week we will talk about our Standing Committees.

Standing Committees
Our standing orders currently provide:

17. A Standing Orders Committee to consist of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and 3 other Members shall be appointed as soon as practicable after the opening of a new House to maintain a continuing surveillance of the practices and procedures of the House with a view to making recommendations which would enhance the operational efficiency of the House.

18. A Committee of Privileges shall be appointed as soon as practicable after the opening of a new House to –
a) inquire into and report upon complaints of breach of privilege which may be referred to it by the House; and
b) inquire into and report upon any matter referred to it under the Legislative Assembly (Register of Members’ Interests) Act 2005.

The Committee to consist of three permanent members and an alternate member to act when a permanent member is unavailable due to illness; is off Island; or nominates to be absent due to a conflict of interest or some other reason

19. A House Committee to consist of the Speaker and 2 other Members shall be appointed as soon as practicable after the opening of a new House to advise the Speaker on the facilities to be made available to Members and staff within the areas allocated to the House.

20. A Business Committee to consist of the Speaker and 2 other Members shall be appointed as soon as practicable after the opening of a new House to arrange the order of business for the House.

20A. An Impact of Bills and Subordinate Legislation Committee, to consider Bills and subordinate legislation referred to it by the House shall be appointed as soon as practicable after the opening of a new House. The Committee to consist of three permanent members and an alternate member to act when a permanent member is unavailable due to illness; is off Island; or nominates to be absent due to a conflict of interest or some other reason.

20B. .A Public Accounts and Estimates Committee to consist of the Speaker (ex officio) and three other Members shall be appointed as soon as practicable after the opening of a new House to scrutinise and assess the financial administration of the Public Sector, and to promote reform where necessary.
The Committee shall –
1) examine -
a) the accounts of the receipts and expenditure of Norfolk Island;
b) the financial affairs of authorities of Norfolk Island;
c) all reports of the Government Auditor which have been laid before the Assembly; and
d) such other relevant matters as the Committee deems relevant




2) Report to the Assembly with such comments as it thinks fit, any items or matters in those accounts, statements and reports, or any circumstances connected with them, to which the Committee is of the opinion that the attention of the Assembly should be directed

3) Inquire into any question in connection with the public accounts which is referred to it by the Assembly and to report to the Assembly on that question. The Committee may consider any other matter relevant to its inquiry; shall have the power to send for persons, papers and records; and may invite submissions from members of the public

21. Other standing committees may be appointed from time to time to consider and report on such subjects as may be decided by the House.

22. All standing committee shall be appointed on motion and, except as provided in standing order 17, 18, 19 or 20 or unless otherwise ordered, shall consist of a minimum of 3 Members to be nominated: Provided that if more Members are nominated than are required the House shall proceed to ballot.

If there are specific matters of parliamentary procedure that readers would like me to discuss in Your Parliament Your Voice do send me an email with your query to speaker@assembly.gov.nf.

Issued from the Office of the Speaker on 27 May 2011 and posted on the blog site http://yourparliamentyourvoice.blogspot.com

Assembly Procedure

I received an inquiry from a member of the public during the week relating to procedure on questions, questions on notice and adjournment; and the inquirer suggested “Perhaps it would be a good time to publish this information anew?”

Readers may find my response of interest and I quote it here.

“Questions. Questions without notice are just that - they are asked openly in the House and unless the member asking the question has given the Minister prior indication that he will be asking a specific question, the Minister would not have notice of the question. Questions without notice do not appear on the Notice Paper. As an aside there is no obligation on a Minister to answer a question, whether it is on notice or without notice, though for political reasons it would be unusual for a Minister to refuse to do so. There are times that a Minister may not know the answer to a question without notice and often the Minister will say "I will take that question on notice". When this happens there is an expectation that the member will then put his question in writing and lodge it with the Clerk for it to appear on the Notice Paper for the next sitting.

“Questions on notice means that a member lodges a question in writing with the Clerk to the Assembly; this can happen at any time between sittings with the deadline for lodgement being 4 pm on the Thursday before the sitting at which the member seeks the question be answered. Questions on Notice then appear on the Notice Paper which is published in the Islander and on Norfolk Online by the Clerk on the weekend prior to the sitting day.

“Whilst by convention Questions/Questions on notice are a facility available to Members of the Parliament to seek information on issues with which they may have a concern, nevertheless it is not uncommon for members to ask questions of Ministers on behalf of members of the public who have requested they do so; but the name of the member of the public would not be mentioned.

Adjournment. Adjournment of debate is the term used when a matter on the notice paper is to be adjourned until a later day; the rules require that if a member moves a motion of adjournment the Chair must put the motion forthwith without further debate. If the motion is agreed to, debate is so adjourned. If not, debate continues until concluded and the question put - that the motion be agreed to.

A motion to adjourn the House till another day is different. By convention the motion for the adjournment of the House is a facility open to members to use to raise a broad range of issues.” (Unquote)

Parliamentary documents can be found on www.info.gov.nf under the heading Assembly Matters. If there are matters of parliamentary procedure that readers would like me to discuss in Your Parliament Your Voice do send me an email with your query to speaker@assembly.gov.nf.

Issued from the Office of the Speaker on 20 May 2011

Sitting of the Legislative Assembly on 4 May 2011

Sitting of the Legislative Assembly on 4 May 2011
The Legislative Assembly met on Wednesday 4 May 2011 at 10 am and concluded at 12.35 pm; Deputy Speaker Snell and Mr King who are off Island were granted leave from the sitting.

The following papers were tabled:

1) Minister for Tourism, Commerce and Industry, Mr Nobbs –
a) Tourism Ministers Summary of Initiatives;
b) Postal Services (Amendment) Regulations 2011;
c) Print out on Marine Bioregional Planning Initiative taken from www.environment.gov.au/coasts/east/index

2) Chief Minister, Mr Buffett –
a) Virement of Funds since 6 April 2011;
b) Financial indicators for February and March 2011;
c) Economic Indicators December 2010 based on GST Gross Revenue;
d) Explanatory Memorandum to the Customs (Amendment) Bill 2011
3) Mrs Griffiths – Curriculum Vitae for Professor Kenneth William Wiltshire AO;
4) Ms Adams – Open Letter to Members of the Assembly of the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly from Island Elders Marie Bailey OAM, Bernie Christian Bailey, W.A. Blucher AM, Tom Lloyd AM, Ken Nobbs, Jim Olsson and Greg Quintal MBE.

Statements were made on the following issues:

1) Speaker Adams –
a. Recorded the making of history in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly with the election of its first female speaker, South Coast Liberal MP Shelley Hancock. Congratulations were extended to Ms Hancock on her election;
b. acknowledged the invitation received from the Hon John Mickel MP, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, for the Speaker and the Clerk to the Assembly to attend the Regional sitting of the Queensland Parliament being held later this month in Mackay. Whilst unable to attend, the Speaker extended her best wishes for a successful sitting;

2) Chief Minister, Mr Buffett –
a) spoke on the advancement of the Norfolk Island Road Map;
b) advised of the visit of the JSC from 5 to 7 May 2011. The JSC is to meet with Members of the Assembly and in private session with community members and groups during their visit.

Outcomes for matters on the Notice Paper which were debated are as follows:

1 Mrs Lorraine Boudan was reappointed as a member of the Immigration Committee for two years from 21 May 2011;
2 Mr Albert Buffett, Mrs Jeanette (Liz) Calder and Mr Peter Horrocks were appointed members of the Norfolk Island Museum Trust for 3 years from 5 May 2011;
3. Substantive debate ensued on the motion proposed by Mrs Griffiths in respect of the Commonwealth Funded review of the Norfolk Island Administration and all its associated business entities. The motion was agreed with amendment to paragraph c);
4. The Customs (Amendment) Bill 2011 was introduced and passed through all stages;
5 Debate on the Ombudsman Bill 2011 was again adjourned.

The House will next meet on 1 June 2011 at 10 am. To read the Notice Paper, Programme and Minutes of Proceedings and legislation tabled in the House go to www.info.gov.nf

Issued from the Office of the Speaker on 4 May 2011 and posted on the blog site http://yourparliamentyourvoice.blogspot.com