Threshold for Submitting Amendments to the Constitution and Standing Orders

Submitted by: 31 Party Members.
Mover: Cllr Prue Bray.
Summation: To be announced.

Conference notes that:

1. An amendment to change either the Constitution or Conference Standing Orders requires a two–thirds majority to pass, a higher threshold than the simple majority required for business motions.
2. The rules on submitting Constitutional or Standing Order amendments are the same as for business motions, including a provision that they can be submitted by 10 party members.
3. Conference Standing Orders require all validly submitted constitutional amendments and amendments to Standing Orders to be accepted for debate, save for the limited exceptions listed in standing order 4.3, whereas Federal Conference Committee has the ability to determine which business motions are selected for debate.

Conference therefore agrees to insert at the end of Standing Order 1.3 b):

‘...save that constitutional amendments and secondary constitutional amendments, and standing order amendments and secondary standing order amendments, submitted by party members shall require 30 signatures of members from at least three local parties.’

Applicability: Federal.

The existing text of conference standing orders is printed at pages 107–125 of the Conference Agenda.

Mover: 5 minutes; all other speakers: 3 minutes. For eligibility and procedure for speaking in this debate, see pages 6-7 of the agenda. You can submit a speaker's card online here from Monday 15 September up to 10.15 Tuesday 23 September or in person.

The deadline for amendments to this motion is 13.00 Monday 8 September; you can submit amendments online here, see pages 9–10 of the agenda for more information. Those selected for debate will be printed in Conference Extra and Tuesday’s Conference Daily. The deadline for requests for separate votes is 09.00 Monday 22 September; you can request separate votes here, see page 5 of the agenda for more information.

Standing order amendments require a two-thirds majority to pass.