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Procedure and House Affairs committee That's right. Typically members would be here at seven, 7:30, or eight o'clock.
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee Thank you, Chair, and yes, please, if there are any other queries or follow-ups, please be in contact, and we'll be only too happy to help.
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee The reason we start at noon on the Tuesday is that it's in the morning when the political parties will have their meetings. Typically, the parties will have their party meetings on that morning prior to the House sitting.
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee We're not doing it, but it is a very interesting phenomenon that, first, the level of female representation does seem to have plateaued around that 25% to 30% mark and, second, that Australia's rankings have fallen significantly over the last 15 years. I think we were up there at
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee It was a very long time ago. It might be 30 years. It's a very long time. I'd have to go back and check. I'm happy to do that, but it would be a very long time ago.
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee An important issue is that the House didn't lose any sitting time as a result of eliminating the Friday sittings, because they sat earlier. For example, at that time we didn't meet until 2 p.m. on individual days. Now we meet at 10 a.m. on Mondays, we meet at 12 noon on Tuesdays,
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee The child care centre does stay open until 9 o'clock at night on parliamentary sitting days. It goes from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on a sitting day, and it goes from 8 a.m. until 6 o'clock in the evening on a normal non-sitting day. It is open and members can leave their children ther
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee Very fortunately, one feature of the hours that we have now is that we very rarely have later sittings. They certainly do happen but they're quite unusual. They could be as rare as only one or two times a year now. It's really quite unusual for us to sit beyond those standard sit
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee Yes. The times I mentioned are fixed.
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee No, there isn't any predictability. It can take place at any time and, frankly, it does take place at any time.
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee We start off at 9 a.m., and we run with government business from 9 a.m. through to 1:30 p.m. We then have quite an innovative procedure, which is called “90-second statements”. Between 1:30 and 2:00, members can make a very short 90-second statement on any subject of their choic
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee It would tend to stay fairly strong right until, say, 4:30. When the House goes on to the adjournment debate, you'll often see members starting to leave. There could be divisions in the House right up until 4:30, so members are very conscious of that. They pretty much stay arou
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee It only happened for one day, so it was a new arrangement that was introduced. The House used to sit on Fridays going back historically. There were Friday sittings, and then they changed it to this Monday to Thursday pattern. That was very much built around the members being able
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee That provision was introduced earlier this year, and it hasn't yet been used. I wonder how much it will end up being used. I don't know what the House of Commons is like, but the House of Representatives chamber, particularly during divisions, is not exactly a child-friendly envi
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder
Procedure and House Affairs committee Some of them would be on their first terms, and others would be on second or third terms. It would vary. Some of them are quite experienced members. As I said earlier, the interesting point is, all of those members are recontesting this current election, so that would suggest som
May 17th, 2016Committee meeting
David Elder