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Like many other standing orders in this chapter, this group was adopted without debate, having been drawn from South Australian and NSW models, except for paragraph (4) which was the practice of the House of Commons (one of very few such attributions).[1]
Paragraph (1) is one of those standing orders that are suspended by the operation of the expedited proceedings under SO 113 because it provides for a future day to be appointed for the third reading of a bill after the adoption of the report of the committee of the whole.
See Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 12th edition, Chapter 12, under “Third reading” for comments on the scope of debate permitted at this stage.
As is the case with a similar amendment moved to the second reading motion, paragraph (3) provides that an amendment to leave out the word “now” and substitute “this day 6 months” is taken to finally dispose of the bill. See commentary under SO 114. Amendments of this type are now rare and sometimes misunderstood to have a literal meaning.[2]
Whereas other amendments are permitted to be moved to the motion for the second reading, provided they are relevant to the bill, no other amendments are permitted to be moved to the third reading motion. This prohibition was adopted in the course of the 1989 revision and made explicit a rule implicit in Presidential rulings that having allowed a bill to pass through all previous stages, the Senate must either pass it or decline to pass it. No other course is rationally open to it.[3]
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