By Vernon Daley, Parliamentary Reporter
Whiteman, Johnson and Lightbourne
THE STANDING Orders Committee of the Senate is to recommend to the Upper House that it begins its sittings at 10 a.m., an hour earlier than the regular 11 a.m. starting time.
During its sitting last Friday, the committee agreed that an earlier starting time would allow Senators to get through more work before the scheduled 1:20 p.m. end of sittings.
"If we meet at 10 that would allow us to have three good hours of discussions," said Leader of Opposition Business, Senator Anthony Johnson.
Senator Johnson brought a resolution to the Senate last month calling for the matter to be referred to the Standing Orders Committee for discussion.
There have been constant complaints that the 11:00 a.m. starting time makes it difficult for the Senators to get much work done before the Senate is scheduled to end its sitting at 1:20 p.m. This leads to the Leader of the Senate (Senator Burchell Whiteman) having to move a motion for the time to be extended to allow the business of the day to be completed.
Another complaint of Sena-tors is that the 11 a.m. starting time often leads to long delays in lunch as they push to complete the business of the day. Some sittings now last beyond 3 p.m.
Opposition Senator Dorothy Lightbourne is the sole dissenting voice on the matter which has attracted support from both the Government and Opposition benches.
When the matter was raised in the Senate last month, Senator Lightbourne argued that she found an 11 a.m. starting time more convenient because it allowed her to get more work done at her office before coming to the Senate.
The Senate Committee will now make its recommendation to the full Senate which will debate the matter.
During last Friday's meeting the committee also agreed to have draft Hansard reports sent to Senators to give them an opportunity to make corrections or seek clarification before the reports are printed.
Senators argued that this was necessary because of numerous inaccuracies that are found in the reports when they are published.
