Opinion: The incoming Albanese government has a glorious opportunity to reform processes in the House of Representatives to restore balance, relevance and integrity to parliament, writes Zali Steggall
The incoming Albanese-led government has a glorious opportunity to reform processes in the House of Representatives to restore balance, relevance and integrity to the parliament.Crossbench MP Zali Steggall addresses the House of Representatives chamber in February.The procedures around passing legislation and consideration of any proposed amendments have been mostly tokenistic. Coalition members often repeated speeches and notes provided by the prime minister’s team.
To this end, I welcome comments from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about wanting to lead a more inclusive parliament. This shouldn’t be hard when two-thirds of the divisions of the last Parliament were to actually gag debate. Independents and other crossbench MPs must be given the opportunity to have more of a say in how the parliament functions, particularly regarding private member’s bills and membership of standing committees.
It’s also essential to reform the rules around the suspension of standing orders to remove the requirement for an absolute majority – one more than half the votes of the total number of members of the House – whether they are present or not. A simple majority on the floor should be the standard for all votes in the House. This was never more evident than during COVID as a number of Coalition and Labor members were “paired” and, as such, absent.
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