Senator Andrew Bartlett
Thursday, August 18, 2005
 
Senate President delivers pro-Kyoto message to the Queen
The Senate adjourned early on Wednesday for one of the more arcane Parliamentary rituals - the presentation of the address-in-reply by the Senate to the Governor-General's speech to the opening of the Parliament after the last election.

This is one of those quaint traditions from the first days of the Parliament which still survive. When the Parliament sits for the first time after each election, the Governor-General (or occasionally the Queen) makes the opening speech to all members of Parliament, gathered together in the Senate. After that, the Senate President reports the speech to the Senate and a motion is moved in reply. The motion has a standard wording which sounds like the sort of language that may have been used in 1901. A Government Senator moves the following:

—That the following address-in-reply be agreed to:
To His Excellency the Governor-General
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY—

We, the Senate of the Commonwealth of Australia in Parliament assembled, desire to express our loyalty to our Most Gracious Sovereign and to thank Your Excellency for the speech which you have been pleased to address to Parliament.

This motion is then able to be spoken to, which is a means for Senators to make a speech about literally any topic at all (my speech is here.) This is often used to fill up time in the early periods before the newly elected Government gets all its legislation together for consideration by the Senate. Eventually, when everyone who wants to has spoken, which is often many months later, the Senate motion is agreed to.

At a convenient time after that, the Senate President, accompanied by the presiding officers and whichever Senators wish to attend, all go round to the Governor-General's residence to present the Address-in-reply for him to convey to the Queen. I used to think this meant the President presented a volume containing all the speeches made to the motion, but what actually happens is that the President just reads out the wording of the Address-in-reply motion to the Governor-General, who then says thank you, that he will convey the message to the Queen, and a few supportive comments about the importance of the work that Senators do. After that, he and his wife walk around to chat with the Senators while people get offered nibblies and drinks.

The Senate can amend the Address-in-reply motion, which was done on this occasion, as it has been 6 other times over the years. The amendment was one moved by me, and it read:

That the following words be added to the
address-in-reply:
"but the Senate is of the opinion that the Government's failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, to take strong action to reduce Australia's greenhouse emissions and to urge the United States of America to do likewise, is putting at risk international efforts on climate change".

I'd originally also included "that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second is to be commended for her reported public support for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol" in my amendment but that was later ruled out of order. Whilst it would have been nice to have this in there, it is best that the Queen not be drawn into partisan political issues.

Getting such an amendment agreed to has no practical effect of course, but as with any formal expression of opinion, it does send a message. It also added a nice twist to the occasion, with the President solemnly reading out the "May it please Your Excellency" stuff, and then having to follow by also reading out the amendment about climate change at the end.

Having said that it has no practical effect, I should note that the previous Address-in-reply in 2002 also had a Democrat amendment attached, which added:
"but the Senate is of the opinion that:
(a) the Government must move towards a more humane and workable approach to asylum seekers; and
(b) Woomera detention centre should be closed".

Lo and behold, 3 years later there has been a more humane approach and Woomera has been closed! Perhaps the Queen acts on these "Replies" after all? If by 2008 when the next Address-in-reply is presented the Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by Australia, maybe this ritual will have been shown to have some extra oomph after all.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Thursday, August 18, 2005 Permalink
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