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The Standing Orders provide Members with an opportunity to give their attention to a pressing matter by moving a debatable adjournment motion. A Member may request leave from the Speaker “to make a motion for the adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter requiring urgent consideration”.[67] Furthermore, the matter “must relate to a genuine emergency”[68] and, if the request is granted by the Speaker, the House is permitted to debate the topic at an early opportunity, foregoing the usual 48 hours’ notice period. Until the turn of the twentieth century, any Member, at virtually any time in the proceedings, could introduce a new matter for discussion by moving the adjournment of the House. Since the adjournment motion could be moved at any time and was always subject to debate, the result would be an interruption of the business then before the House, often leading to the disruption of the entire day’s program. In 1906, the government of the day decided to remedy this situation and implemented a new rule, the ancestor to the present Standing Order, whereby debate would be permitted only on adjournment motions dealing with definite matters of urgent public importance.[69] From 1906 to 1968, motions under the emergency debate rule were considered immediately after they had been accepted for debate. This meant that other business was put aside. In December 1968, the House amended the rule to have the debate begin at 8:00 p.m., except on Fridays when it would begin at 3:00 p.m., if proceeded with the same day.[70] This still resulted in a conflict and a displacement of the regular business of the House. When the regular evening sittings of the House were abolished in 1982,[71] the conflict between emergency debates and the regular business of the House was eliminated, except for Fridays. As one Speaker noted, an emergency debate should be on a topic “that is immediately relevant and of attention and concern throughout the nation”.[72] Thus, matters of chronic or continuing concern, such as economic conditions, unemployment rates and constitutional matters, have tended to be set aside whereas topics deemed to require urgent consideration have included work stoppages and strikes, natural disasters, and international crises and events.[73] At various times other topics such as fisheries, forestry and agriculture have also been judged acceptable.[74] Topics considered highly partisan in nature are not as readily approved.[75]
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