Without wanting to pre-empt the outcome of any deliberations of the Procedure Committee, I find that that particular way of starting every day is one that includes everybody. Members, at the beginning of this sitting of the Assembly, I would ask you to stand in silence and pray or reflect on our responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory Upon the Speaker taking the Chair at the commencement of each sitting, and a quorum of members being present, the following shall be read: Section 30 of the ACT Legislative Assembly standing orders reads: In 1995 it moved away from that and instead reserves a time of silence when members can either pray or reflect. Interestingly, the only Australian Parliament that so far has moved away from the daily prayer in its routine is the Parliament of the Australian Capital Territory. More recently, as we know, the Victorian Parliament has included an acknowledgement of country in both houses at the beginning of each week. In the commonwealth Senate, the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, the Queensland Legislative Assembly and the South Australian House of Assembly and Legislative Council the daily prayer precedes the acknowledgement of country or traditional owners. For example, in the commonwealth House of Representatives, the Tasmanian House of Assembly and Legislative Council and the ACT Legislative Assembly the acknowledgement is made before the daily prayer. What that shows is that most Australian parliaments still have the daily prayer, and most now have acknowledgements of country or acknowledgements of the traditional owners as well. I did circulate to the party leaders and whips and to the crossbenchers a document that outlines some of the changes that have happened in places around Australia and in other parts of the world with regard to the opening of a daily meeting of the Parliament. That could and should be looked at by a joint meeting of the Procedure Committee and the Legislative Assembly Standing Orders Committee, and there are a variety of other matters that the committee could look at. Also, one of the other issues that is outstanding is the operation of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. If the committee meets, it could look at that issue. That is another important issue I think the committee could be looking at, even though it is not part of my motion. I would also be keen to see the Procedure Committee look at other issues as well, such as family-friendly hours, which we now have in the Legislative Assembly, but the operation of the Legislative Council is lagging behind the Assembly in terms of family-friendly hours. As a member of the Procedure Committee and as a longstanding member of the former iteration of the Procedure Committee, the Standing Orders Committee, I have had a long interest in the proceedings of the Parliament as outlined and decided by that committee and outlined in the various versions of the standing orders and sessional orders that we have adopted to govern the proceedings in the Parliament. I understand that some people will have and do have strong views on this issue, but I also know that there is support amongst individual MPs for the Parliament to look at other options, and there is support in the community for that to happen as well. The community would like to see the proceedings of the Parliament reflect the community as a whole, and at present the daily prayer as is currently practised does not. This is an issue which is often raised with me by people in the community, and although change in Australian parliaments and others has been met with much resistance, I think the call for a change in this regard will continue, and it is a valid issue that people raise in that the current proceedings of the Parliament are not reflective of the community at present. The motivation behind my motion is to look at alternatives that already occur in other parliaments in Australia and across the world which would better reflect our multicultural community in Victoria. The Procedure Committee is the custodian of the standing orders, and that is why this motion is directed to the Procedure Committee. That is the daily prayer that is read by the President every morning according to the standing orders. The purpose of the motion is to charge the Procedure Committee with considering options to the current practice of reciting a particular version, and only that version, of the Lord's Prayer, which is the traditional Anglican version. That this house requires the Procedure Committee to inquire into and report no later than 1 December 2016 on a suitable alternative to the daily prayer, including looking at options adopted by other parliaments, and calls on the committee to request submissions from the public and conduct public hearings in the completion of its inquiries. Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) - I move:

Opening prayer for council meetings