Appointment of committee
Except in relation to bills, for which the Senate resolves itself into committee at the appropriate stage if required, a committee of the whole must be appointed by motion to consider a matter.[1] Normally this is done by a motion, moved when a document is laid before the Senate, that the document be considered in committee of the whole on a future day. The standing orders allow such a motion to be moved whenever a document is laid before the Senate.[2] This may be done, for example, with reports of the Procedure Committee recommending changes to Senate procedures. If such a motion is passed, the consideration of the document in committee of the whole becomes an order of the day for a future day, and when the order of the day is called on the Senate automatically goes into committee of the whole to consider the document.[3] It is also open to a senator to move by motion on notice that a matter be considered in committee of the whole at a specified time.