State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed is pushing to allow discussion of non-government business in Victoria’s lower house.
Ms Sheed has been asking for debate on reintroducing discussion of non-government business since she entered parliament.
Victorian Opposition leader Matthew Guy offered his support for Ms Sheed this week, while the Greens and other independents have backed her following an article in The Guardian earlier in the week highlighting the Victorian ban on discussions of non-government business in the lower house.
Victoria’s is the only parliament in Australia that doesn’t allow discussion of non-government business, meaning Opposition and cross-bench members are unable to ask questions, propose legislation or move amendments.
No such restriction exists in the upper house.
On Tuesday, Ms Sheed stood up in parliament and asked a familiar question.
“I request leave that general business notice of motion 48 noting to the reintroduction of non-government business to be moved immediately,” she said.
Speaker Colin Brooks turned to the leader of the lower house, Jacinta Allan, and asked a simple question.
“Is leave granted?” he asked.
After a brief pause for a comment from Ms Allan not picked up by parliament’s microphones, Mr Brooks spoke again.
“Leave is refused,” he said.
Ms Sheed sat back down.
“I was quite deflated,” Ms Sheed said on Wednesday.
“In a sense, because I do it every Tuesday and it’s never granted, I should have expected it but there was a bit more behind it this week.”
The “very disappointed” Ms Sheed said the ruling meant she had been unable to introduce her own bills and made it difficult to be an effective elected representative.
She said independents and Opposition members being unable to move a motion to debate legislation should have happened during coronavirus pandemic rulings, as well as laws around camping on Crown land.
“It makes our house so meaningless,” she said.
“In the upper house you get people voted in with so few votes due to preference whisperers, but the seat of democracy is in our house where everyone is voted in.”
Ms Allan said this week the government would continue to look into other ways more voices could be heard in parliament. Meanwhile Deputy Premier James Merlino has also been asked about making changes.
“Whether it’s abolishing ‘Dorothy Dixers’, adding supplementary and constituency questions, or e-petitions, we’ve put in a range of measures to ensure more voices in our parliament,” Ms Allan told The Guardian.
Ms Sheed is sceptical, but said she would continue pushing for the right to speak, both on behalf of her own constituents and for those across the state, ahead of the state election later this year.