Standing Orders
General Provisions and Office Holders Sittings of The House General Procudures Legislative Procedures Select Committees Non-Legislative Procedures

INTRODUCTION

1. Purpose

   These Standing Orders contain rules for the conduct of proceedings in the Youth House of Representatives.

2. Interpretation

   The Speaker (or other member presiding) is responsible for ruling whenever any question arises as to the interpretation or application of a Standing Order and for deciding cases not otherwise provided for. In all cases the Speaker will be guided by previous Speakers' rulings and by the established practices of the House.

3. Definitions

   In these Standing Orders, if not inconsistent with the context, -
   

   'Clerk' means the Clerk of the House of Representatives or, if the office is vacant or the Clerk is absent from duty, means the Deputy Clerk of the House of Representatives or a person appointed by the Speaker to act as Clerk of the House of Representatives; and includes any person authorised by the Clerk to perform any of the functions or exercise any of the powers of the Clerk under these Standing Orders:
   "Leave", or "leave of the House" or "leave of the committee" means permission to do something that is granted without a dissentient voice:
   "Member" means a youth member of Parliament appointed to the Youth Parliament 1997:
   "Member's notice of motion" means a notice of motion given by a member who is not a Minister:
   "Order of the day' means a bill or other item of business which has been set down for consideration by the House.

   JOURNALS AND RECORDS

4. Clerk to note proceedings

   The Clerk notes all proceedings of the House. The Clerk's notes will he published as the Journals of the House.

5. Official report
   1. An official report (known as Hansard) will be made of the proceedings.
   2. The report shall be published.

    

   CHAPTER II
   SITTINGS OF THE HOUSE

6. Speaker controls admission

   On behalf of the House, the Speaker controls admission to the Chamber, the lobbies and the galleries and may from time to time issue rules setting out who may be admitted to those areas and governing their conduct there.

   BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

7. Prayers and Mace

   On taking the Chair at the commencement of each sitting the Speaker reads a prayer to the House and the Mace is placed upon the Table.

8. Order of business

   At each sitting the House transacts its business in the order shown on the Order Paper.

9. Order Paper
   1. The Clerk must prepare an Order Paper for each sitting day showing the business of the House in the order in which it is to be transacted.
   2. The Order Paper is prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Standing Orders as to the order in which business is to be transacted.

10. Types of business

    The business of the House consists of the following-

    1. general business:
    2. Members' orders of the day.

11. General business

    General business is taken in the following order-

    1. First reading of bills.
    2. Questions for oral answer (including urgent questions).
    3. A general debate.
    CHAPTER III
    GENERAL PROCEDURES

    MAINTENANCE OF ORDER

12. Speaker maintains order
    1. The Speaker maintains order and decorum in the House.
    2. Whenever the Speaker rises during a sitting, members must sit down and be silent so that the Speaker can be heard without interruption.

13. Members to acknowledge Chair

    Except when voting, members must make an acknowledgment to the Chair on entering and leaving the Chamber.

14. Members to be seated

    Members must be seated when they are in the Chamber except when speaking in debate or voting.

15. Members to stand as Speaker leaves Chamber

    When the Speaker is about to leave the Chamber at the conclusion of a sitting members rise in their places and remain standing until the Speaker has left the Chamber.

16. Points of order
    1. Any member may raise a point of order. A point of order takes precedence of other business until ruled on by the Speaker.
    2. The Speaker may rule on a point of order when it is raised without allowing any discussion apart from that of the member raising the point.
    3. A member raising a point of order and any member permitted by the Speaker to speak to a point of order must put the point tersely and speak only to the point of order raised. A point of order is heard in silence by the House.

17. Disorderly conduct
    1. The Speaker may order any member whose conduct is highly disorderly to withdraw immediately from the House during the period (up to the remainder of that day's sitting) that the Speaker decides.
    2. Any member ordered to withdraw from the House may not enter the Chamber but may vote.

    MOTIONS

18. Notice necessary before motion moved

    A motion may be moved only after notice of it is given and the notice appears on the Order Paper, unless a Standing Order or the practice of the House provides to the contrary.

19. Form and content of notices
    1. A notice of motion must be expressed in a form and with content appropriate for a resolution of the House. It must clearly indicate the issue to be raised for debate and include only such material as may be necessary to identify the facts or matter to which the motion relates.
    2. Notices of motion must not contain-
       1. unbecoming or offensive expressions or expressions or words which would not be permitted in debate, and
       2. statements of fact or the names of persons unless they are strictly necessary to render the notice intelligible and can be authenticated.

    RULES OF DEBATE

20. Speaker calls upon member to speak

    When two or more members rise together the member called upon by the Speaker is entitled to speak.

21. Members to address Speaker

    A member on being called to speak addresses the Speaker and, through the Speaker, the House.

22. Speeches in English or Maori

    A member may address the Speaker in English or in Maori.

23. Relevancy
    1. All debate must be relevant to the question before the House.
    2. After having called the attention of the House to the conduct of a member who persists in irrelevance or tedious repetition either of the member's own arguments or of the arguments used by other members in debate, the Speaker may terminate that member's speech.

24. Visual Aids
    1. A member may use an appropriate visual aid to illustrate a point being made during the member's speech, provided that the aid does not inconvenience other members or obstruct the proceedings of the House.
    2. Such an aid may be displayed only when the member is speaking to a question before the House and must be removed from the Chamber at the conclusion of the member's speech.
    
    
25. Matters awaiting judicial decision

    Subject always to the discretion of the Speaker, matters awaiting or under adjudication in any court of record may not be referred to-

    1. in any motion, or
    2. in any debate, or
    3. in any question, including a supplementary question, from the time that the case has been set down for trial or otherwise brought before the court, if it appears to the Speaker that there is a real and substantial danger of prejudice to the trial of the case.

26. Offensive references to House or judiciary

    A member may not use offensive words against the House or against any member of the judiciary.

27. References to Sovereign or Governor-General

    A member may not refer to the Sovereign or the Governor-General disrespectfully in debate or for the purpose of influencing the House in its deliberations.

28. Personal reflections

    A member may not make an imputation of improper motives against a member, an offensive reference to a member's private affairs or a personal reflection against a member.

29. Offensive or disorderly words

    If any offensive or disorderly words are used, whether by a member who is speaking or by a member who is present, the Speaker shall intervene.

    RULES FOR AMENDMENTS

30. Amendments to be relevant

    An amendment must be relevant to the question which it proposes to amend.

31. Amendments to be in writing

    An amendment must be put into writing, signed by the mover, and delivered to the Clerk at the Table.

32. Form of question on amendment

    When an amendment has been moved, the Speaker proposes a question, "That the amendment be agreed to".

33. No amendment to he made to words already agreed to

    An amendment (except an amendment to add further words) may not be moved to any words which the House has declined to omit, or which have been inserted in or added to a question.

34. Order of moving amendments

    Each amendment is disposed of before another amendment to the same question may be moved.

35. Amendment to amendment

    An amendment may be moved to a proposed amendment.

36. Withdrawal of amendment

    After the Speaker has proposed the question on an amendment, the amendment cannot be withdrawn without leave.

37. Questions put
    1. When amendments are agreed to, the question, as amended, is put.
    2. When amendments are not agreed to, the question is put as originally proposed.

    PUTTING THE QUESTION

38. Question is put when debate concluded
    1. Except where otherwise provided, as soon as the debate upon a question is concluded the Speaker puts the question to the House.
    2. Questions are determined by a majority of votes Aye or No. Every member is entitled to one vote or to abstain.

39. Voice vote

    The Speaker asks members to answer "Aye" or "No" to the question and states the result of the voice vote. Any member present may then call for a further vote to be held.

40. Procedure for personal vote
    1. In a personal vote-
       1. the bells are rung for one minute:
       2. the Speaker directs the Ayes to pass to the right, the Noes to the left and abstentions to the centre and appoints a teller for the Ayes and one for the Noes:
       3. the doors are closed and locked as soon after the bells have stopped as the Speaker directs; the Speaker then restates the question:
       4. all members present within the Chamber or the lobbies when the doors are locked must vote or record their abstentions:
       5. members' votes are counted by the tellers and their names recorded; members abstaining have their abstentions recorded by the Clerk at the Table:
       6. the personal vote lists are signed by the tellers and returned to the Speaker; the Speaker declares the result to the House.
    2. Members may observe the voting in any part of the Chamber and in the lobbies.

41. Members to remain in Chamber

    Members voting or abstaining on a personal vote must remain in the Chamber or in the lobbies until the declaration of the result by the Speaker; the vote or abstention of any member who does not remain in the Chamber or in the lobbies until the declaration of the result is disallowed.

42. One minute bell for personal votes In certain cases

    In respect of any personal vote which is held without any debate or other proceeding occurring since the immediately preceding personal vote, the bells may be rung for one minute only.

43. Member acting as teller must continue to act unless excused by Speaker

    A member who has begun to act as a teller must continue to act in that capacity unless excused by the Speaker.

44. Records of personal votes

    The names of members who have voted or abstained on a personal vote are recorded in the Journals.

45. Errors and mistakes
    1. In case of confusion or error concerning the result of a vote, the House, unless any error can be otherwise corrected, proceeds to a second vote.
    2. If the result of a vote has been inaccurately reported, the Speaker may correct it.

46. Ties

    In the case of a tie on a vote the question is lost.

    CHAPTER IV
    LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURES

    FIRST READING

47. First reading
    1. A bill is introduced into the House by being read a first time.
    2. There is no question put on the first reading of a bill.
    3. The first reading of bills takes place at the time appointed by Standing Order 11.

    SECOND READING

48. Bills set down for second reading

    After its first reading a bill is set down for second reading.

49. Second reading

    The motion on the order of the day for the second reading of a bill is that the bill be now read a second time.

    THIRD READING

50. Third reading

    The motion on the order of the day for the third reading of a bill is that the bill be now read a third time.

    CHAPTER V
    SELECT COMMITTEES

    ESTABLISHMENT OF SELECT COMMITTEES

51. Subject select committees

    The subject select committees and their subject areas are-

    1. Commerce Committee: commerce, communications, energy, regional development and tourism.
    2. Education and Science Committee: education, research, science and technology.
    3. Finance and Expenditure Committee: government finance, insurance, superannuation, taxation and the auditing of the Crown's financial statements and departmental financial statements.
    4. Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee: customs, defence, foreign affairs and trade.
    5. Government Administration Committee: central government advisory services, official information, security intelligence, statistics and services to Parliament.
    6. Health Committee: health.
    7. Internal Affairs and Local Government Committee: internal affairs and local government.
    8. Justice and Law Reform Committee: corrections, courts, Crown legal services, justice, police, privacy and serious fraud.
    9. Maori Affairs Committee: Maori affairs.
    10. Primary Production Committee: agriculture, fishing and forestry.
    11. Social Services Committee: employment, housing, immigration, labour and social welfare.
    12. Transport and Environment Committee: conservation, construction and development, environment, land information, surveying, transport and transport safety.

    CONDUCT OF PROCEEDINGS

52. Names of members present

    The names of the members of a select committee present at a meeting are recorded in the committee's minutes.

53. Quorum

    The quorum of a select committee is four members.

    HEARING OF EVIDENCE

54. Attendance while evidence being heard

    The proceedings of all select committees during the hearing of evidence on the matter, which is the subject of investigation by the committee, are open to the public.

55. Witnesses may make written submissions

    A witness will be given the opportunity to make a submission in writing before appearing to give oral evidence.

56. Conduct of examination
    1. The examination of witnesses is conducted as the chairperson. with the approval of the select committee, directs.
    2. The chairperson, and every member through the chairperson, may put questions to a witness.

57. Relevance of questions The chairperson will take care to ensure that all questions put are relevant to the committee's proceedings and that the information sought by those questions is necessary for the purpose of those proceedings.
    CHAPTER VI
    NON-LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURES

    QUESTIONS TO MINISTERS AND MEMBERS

58. Questions to Ministers

    Questions may be put to a Minister relating to-

    1. public affairs with which the Minister is officially connected, or
    2. proceedings in the House or any matter of administration for which the Minister is responsible.

59. Content of questions
    1. Questions shall be concise and not contain-
       1. statements of facts and names of persons unless they are strictly necessary to render the question intelligible and can be authenticated, or
       2. arguments, inferences, imputations, epithets, ironical expressions or expressions of opinion, or
       3. discreditable references to the House or any member of Parliament or any offensive or unparliamentary expression.
    2. Questions shall not seek a legal opinion.
    3. Where the notice of a question does not comply with the provisions of the Standing Orders, it shall not be accepted. If, by inadvertence, such a notice is accepted it may be subsequently disallowed by the Speaker unless it is amended or revised so as to comply with the Standing Orders.

60. How question for oral answer asked

    When a question for oral answer is called by the Speaker, the member in whose name it stands indicates the Minister or member to whom it is addressed and reads it to the House. The Speaker then calls upon the Minister or member to give the reply.

61. Supplementary questions

    At the discretion of the Speaker, a supplementary question may be asked by any member to elucidate or clarify a matter raised in a question for oral answer or in an answer given to a question. Supplementary questions cannot be asked on behalf of another member.