Rearrangement of Business
Speakers
Summary
This motion concerns the rearrangement of parliamentary business to take the Second Reading of the Patents (Amendment) Bill, Architects (Amendment) Bill, and Early Childhood Development Centres Bill before the FY 2017/2018 Budget Statement debate. Deputy Leader Desmond Lee sought to suspend Standing Order No 26(1) and No 89(3), which usually mandate that Supply business be the first order of the day. He argued that this change was necessary to manage the total number of Bills needing to be read during the current period of sittings. By suspending these procedural rules, the House could prioritize these legislative readings before resuming the Business of Supply. The motion was ultimately agreed to, resolving that the specified Bills be taken before the resumption of the Budget Statement debate.
Transcript
The Deputy Leader (Mr Desmond Lee): Mdm Speaker, I beg to move, "That notwithstanding Standing Order No 26(1) and No 89(3), the Second Reading of the Patents (Amendment) Bill, Architects (Amendment) Bill and Early Childhood Development Centres Bill be taken before today's resumption of debate on the FY 2017/2018 Budget Statement".
Madam, Standing Order No 26(1) states that once an order is made for Bills to be taken after the conclusion of proceedings on the Estimates of Expenditure for FY 2017/2018, as made to the House by the respective Ministers in charge of the aforementioned Bills after their First Reading on 6 February 2017, such an order cannot be moved earlier but only later. As the Debate on the FY 2017/2018 Budget Statement is a Business of Supply, and Standing Order 89(3) requires that Supply business must be the first order of the day on the allotted days, no businesses can precede the Debate on the Budget Statement.
The agreement of the House is, therefore, sought to suspend both these Standing Orders to allow the aforementioned Bills to be read for the Second time before the resumption of debate on the FY 2017/2018 Budget Statement. This is in view of the total number of Bills that need to be read in this House during this period of sittings.
Question put, and agreed to.
Resolved, "That, notwithstanding Standing Order No 26(1) and No 89(3), the Second Reading of the Patents (Amendment) Bill, Architects (Amendment) Bill and Early Childhood Development Centres Bill be taken before the resumption of debate on the FY 2017/2018 Budget Statement on 28 February 2017." − [Mr Desmond Lee]