Section 138: Voting and right of audience in Parliament

(1) Except where this Constitution provides otherwise—

    (a) all questions proposed for decision in either House of Parliament are decided by a

majority of the votes of the Members of that House present and voting;

    (b) the person presiding in either House of Parliament does not have either a deliberative

or a casting vote on any issue before the House;

    (c) if the votes in either House of Parliament are equally divided on any motion, the

motion is lost.

(2) Vice-Presidents are entitled to sit and speak, but not vote, in both Houses of Parliament.

(3) Ministers and Deputy Ministers are entitled to sit and speak in both Houses of Parliament but have no right to vote in a House of which they are not Members.

(4) Members of the Parliamentary Legal Committee and any other joint committee of Parliament are entitled to sit and speak in either House of Parliament for the purpose of introducing or debating any report of that committee which is before the House, but have no right to vote in a House of which they are not Members.

(5) Where a Member of Parliament, other than a Minister or Deputy Minister, has introduced a Bill in the House of which he or she is a Member, and the House has passed the Bill, that Member or, in his or her absence, any other Member of that House is entitled to sit and speak in the other House for the purpose of conducting the Bill through that other House, but has no right to vote in that other House.