Sowry Roger: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
Sowry Roger: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:16018] 
Hon ROGER SOWRY (National) 
: 
 I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. I listened to your ruling and I want to take up with you the issue which I believe you have inadvertently got wrong. At the start of your ruling you made the point that a claim was made that a member—and the claim was made by myself as the senior member speaking on this bill—was entitled to two consecutive calls. That was not what I claimed. [ 
Interruption 
] I want to have your attention—I think that was half the problem. I never claimed that that was a right. I know the Standing Orders very well and know that that is not a right. The point I was making was that right the way through the debate other Chairpersons had by convention been giving the senior spokespersons—who in this case was myself—consecutive calls but only at the beginning of each part. We were at the beginning of a new part and members were entitled—allowed I guess is a better word—to have consecutive calls. 
The issue I raised with you was that it seemed odd to me having been given consecutive calls on other parts of the bill that when you took the Chair you did not follow the convention of the other Chairpersons. I made the point to you that I hoped that was not something you were personally doing—that you were operating with different rules or that perhaps you did not like me or something. You advised me that you had given consecutive calls to me in the past. I have been back and had a look and I can find an occasion on which that occurred in the previous week. So I do not want to imply that you have a snitcher on one particular member. What I want to say is that it would be nice if you could at the next meeting of presiding officers raise the issue of senior members going for a consecutive call so that it becomes the convention that that occurs rather than have the sort of whim that took place last week. After all all sorts of members will seek a call. Of course they will—they have to to contest it. I say to the Chairperson that when I looked at the  
Hansard 
 it was noticeable to me that the one time that a particularly hard-hitting speech was being given was the time that a consecutive call was not given. The debate I have to say with the Minister in the chair has been largely non-acrimonious. There have been issues that we have disagreed over around the bill but the debate in which the Minister has taken several calls has been a good debate in the Committee. There was an issue around the retrospectivity of the legislation that was causing a heated exchange and a vigorous speech and at that point the Chairperson chose not to give a consecutive call. All I ask is that you have a look at this and raise it with the other chairpersons because it seemed to me when I looked at the way in which the debate on the rest of the bill has been carried out that the exercising of the call was being done for a wider range of reasons. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I have been generous in listening to the member. There is nothing in what the member said that I did not cover in my remarks. The call cannot be debated and I am ruling that nothing that has been said requires my ruling. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: Point of order— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: No I have ruled. I ask the member whether it is a new point of order. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: Of course it is. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I have been very tolerant to the member but I have not yet heard anything that is a point of order. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. This is the first occasion that I have seen on which someone has asked the Chairperson whether he or she would at least take something back and discuss it—which is what happens among presiding officers—and the Chairperson has ruled that he or she will not do that. Is that what I am to take from your ruling? 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: The member will be seated. I have made my ruling. As I said there is nothing in what the member has said that requires a ruling on a point of order. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: Point of order— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I warn the member that raising trifling points of order is disorderly. I have ruled on the point of order. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. I am not asking for a ruling—let me be quite clear. I am asking whether as a presiding officer you can establish a clear convention around the issue of a second call. That is all I am asking for. I ask whether you would accept that request and discuss the issue with the other presiding officers. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I have made that perfectly clear in the ruling I read out.