Inevitably, having another debating chamber means there can be greater demands on a member's time. It's a busy time for members of our Parliament. I can imagine it's the case with yours. A lot is going on on a sitting day. The committees are meeting. The House is operating. Visitors are coming in all the time. So members' diaries are quite full. The members need to be careful not to double-book themselves; by that I mean put their name on the list to speak at the same time as a matter comes up in both chambers, because of course they need to make sure that they can fulfill their commitments about speaking.
A little flexibility is necessary with things like speaking lists. Members might need to converse with their colleagues to adjust the order in which they're expecting to speak in the two chambers. It can be visible sometimes. Members literally dash from one chamber to meet a commitment in the other.
What perhaps wasn't anticipated was the evolution of the Federation Chamber itself and [Technical difficulty—Editor] that is conducted now in the Federation Chamber has really grown. Members in particular appreciate the short speaking [Technical difficulty—Editor]. It wasn't always the case, but every time the Federation Chamber meets on any day, the first period is set aside for constituency statements, so members have an opportunity to speak for three minutes. They can say a lot in three minutes, reflecting on the good work of people in their communities. They really value those opportunities.
At the moment, the members include ministers. Some ministers have an opportunity to speak about their constituencies during those three-minute periods. Ministers did not have an opportunity to do that before. The Standing Orders were changed about 10 years ago to enable ministers to have that opportunity as well as just private members having that opportunity, and I know the ministers have valued that. Otherwise, of course, they have the opportunities to speak as a minister, but not necessarily to talk about something in their constituencies. Those sorts of things have been very valued.