Page 569 - Week 02 - Thursday, 14 February 2013
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For the sake of clarity, it is certainly clear to me that this motion does not seek to preclude the operation of standing order 30. Standing order 30 and the way it is conducted here each morning means the Speaker comes into the chamber and invites members to pray or reflect. It is an invitation. It is not a formal endorsement of a religion. It is not a formal endorsement of anybody’s personal practices. And for all that each of us knows, members could stand here in the time that we have available, the 15 or 20 seconds that the Speaker offers us, and pray. Members may simply reflect on the business of the day and how it impacts on the Canberra community. They may in fact be thinking about their shopping list for that evening. It is an open space for members to use as they see fit, as is appropriate.
I think that this is not about the Assembly endorsing any religious affiliation, as opposed to the Assembly as an institution—and this is what this motion is about, the role of the Assembly as an institution—in that instance simply providing a space. So in my mind, it is very clear that standing order 30 would not be affected.
The next one is being a member of any parliamentary Christian fellowship group or peer group and, again, the relevant text is:
If the notice of motion passes in its current form and any prayer, meeting or session organised involves some sort of religious ceremony, my advice is that unless clarified it could prevent members of the Assembly from either organising any such meeting and participating in it. It may also prevent members from forming any type of Christian fellowship group, which conducts any ceremony that involves adherence or affiliation with any religious faith.
Again, this says “unless clarified”. For the sake of clarification, I do not believe this motion in any way prevents those sorts of activities. This motion is directed at this institution collectively endorsing a religion or a faith practice. If individual members want to start a prayer fellowship group then all power to them. If they want to book an Assembly room to conduct that, such is their entitlement as members, just as they are entitled to book that room to invite the chamber of commerce in, just as they can invite members of a visiting parliamentary delegation from overseas.
As members, we are entitled to use the facilities in a private or individual capacity, for a range of purposes. And in fact, members sponsor events at this place that they do not always agree with or that they do not have a strong view in support of. But we make the facilities available for a range of activities to be conducted, because they are a part of our community. Again, I think the clarity can be easily brought to this debate so that the current Speaker and future Speakers might be quite clear when they are asked to draw these conclusions or interpretations of the standing orders.
I think this applies to the remainder of the text. I have not had a chance to go through it all in detail. I have only had a look at those first few paragraphs, but hopefully that clarification is what is needed in response to the Clerk’s advice, which does say “clarification is needed”. The intent of the motion is very clear, that the Assembly as an institution should not be conducting these events. If individual members seek to participate, sponsor, encourage—any word that you would like to add into that
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