Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I echo the point made by Senator Fitzgerald as regards No. 1 being taken without debate and the time limit on the Order of Business. This was discussed in the House before and referred to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. It has not been disposed of by the CPP, and it is inappropriate to force a division on it today. I regret that the Leader insists on doing that. It is unnecessary and should be dealt with by the CPP.

There is now something of a quandary. If the Order of Business goes through, No. 1 will have been taken without debate which will lead to much unhappiness on the Opposition benches. I have reviewed the Order of Business over the years since the foundation of the State and lengthy debates have taken place at intervals. When he was leader of the Opposition, former Senator Jim Dooge spoke for approximately 45 minutes on an issue on the Order of Business, and it was not ruled out of order.

We have imposed limits on contributions since then and nobody disagrees with that concept. However, the amount of time given to issues is of concern to many people and in view of this I ask the Leader to reconsider, to see whether the matter may be addressed this week. If there is no agreement at that point, then it is fair enough to bring the proposal back into the House. The current proposal constitutes a bad start to the session.