David Norris (Independent)

The House is not adversarial. It is not supposed to be. Senators need not laugh.

One of the values of the House is that we advance issues by reasonable debate, not this charade. Although I accept many of the arguments of the Government side I will not vote with them because this is a waste of time. It is also chaotic; I have been in the House for nearly 20 years and only in the last year have we begun to have Private Members' time at 5 p.m. and at 4 p.m. on other occasions. For almost 20 years it was between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. I know the House can order its own business——