Chapter 8 - Conduct
of proceedings
Leave of the Senate
A motion otherwise requiring notice
may be moved without notice by leave of the Senate (SO 88). Senators may
also seek leave to take other courses of action which would not otherwise be in
accordance with standing orders, for example, to make a statement or to present
a document.
Leave of the Senate means unanimous consent
of senators present, and is granted when no senator present objects to the
course of action for which leave is sought.
A senator seeking leave must make clear to the Senate the course of
action for which leave is sought. The President then asks: “Is leave granted?”.
A senator may object simply by saying “no”. If there is no objection, the
President states: “There being no objection, leave is granted”, and the senator
granted leave then proceeds on the course of action for which leave has been
granted.
Leave is restricted to the particular purpose for which it has been
sought, and is subject to any limitations contained in the application for
leave. Thus a senator granted leave to make a statement cannot then move a
motion, and a senator granted leave to move a motion relating to one subject
cannot then move a motion relating to another subject; similarly, a senator who
has successfully sought leave to speak for two minutes cannot speak for longer
than that time.
The granting of leave does not suspend the other requirements of the
standing orders. For example, a senator who has successfully sought leave to
make a statement cannot in the course of the statement make any remarks which
would be out of order under the rules of debate in standing order 193.
In practice, a great deal of the Senate’s business is transacted by
leave, and during any typical sitting senators frequently seek leave to move
motions, make statements and take other actions which would not be permissible
under the standing orders. A senator normally cannot move a motion without
giving notice, and a motion of which notice has been given by a senator who is
not a minister would normally not be reached in the course of a session because
of the large number of notices of motion and other business on the Notice
Paper. The granting of leave therefore provides an expeditious and convenient
way of transacting business by unanimous consent.
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