Used of parliamentary procedure, the British-English phrase kangaroo closure denotes a form of closure by which the chair or speaker selects certain amendments for discussion and excludes others.

This phrase is based on the image of a kangaroo leaping over obstacles.

The phrase kangaroo closure occurs, for example, in the following from Your View, published in the Evening Herald (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Tuesday 17^th October 1989:

KANGAROO: An Australian inhabitant.
It’s just as well that everybody knows what kangaroos look like, because the dictionary describes it as—a herbiverous [sic] marsupial mammal of genus Macropus.
There are kangaroo dogs, hares, mice and rats, but a kangaroo paw is only an Australian herb.
Kangaroos are noted for their jumping power, due to their strongly developed hindquarters. Humans with such hindquarters are only noted for their hindquarters.
A kangaroo court is an illegal one, and a kangaroo closure is where a chairman hops arbitrarily through the agenda. Western Australian mining shares were once called kangaroos, as were the people who dealt in them. I wonder why?—DENIS JORDAN.

The earliest occurrences of the phrase kangaroo closure that I have found are from accounts of a debate which took place in the House of Commons on Friday 20^th August 1909:

1-: From the account of this debate, as published in Hansard, the official report of all Parliamentary debates:

Lord Robert Cecil ¹: I do not believe that the problem of the procedure of this House is insoluble. I do not believe in the guillotine ² nor in all-night sittings, nor even in the new Closure—which I understand is now described as “Kangaroo Closure”—although it does not work badly in some respects, provided it is applied fairly by the Chairman. It all depends on the absolute impartiality of the Chairman who presides over our Debates. I am not going to say a word in criticism of either the Chairman or the Deputy-Chairman; but I do desire to emphasise that point very strongly, and to press upon the Government and the House generally that if this system is not applied fairly it will certainly break down, and not achieve even the modified amount of good which its fair application might secure.

¹ Robert Cecil (1864-1958), 1^st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, was a British lawyer, politician and diplomat; he was the Member of Parliament for Marylebone East from 1906 to 1910.
² Here, the noun guillotine denotes a form of closure by which a bill is divided into compartments, groups of which must be completely dealt with each day.

2-: From the account of this debate, as published in several newspapers on Saturday 21^st August 1909—for example, in The Northern Whig (Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland):

Mr. A. HENDERSON hoped it would be possible to effect an arrangement whereby the House would meet earlier in the day and avoid the all-night sittings.
Lord ROBERT CECIL said such arrangement would only be possible if the Government bound themselves never to sit all night. He thought all-night sittings were worse than the guillotine. The solution of the difficulties of procedure of the House were not insoluble. He did not believe the new form closure, which Ministerialists called kangaroo closure, was a perfect solution, although it would work fairly well if it was applied with absolute impartiality by the Chairman and Deputy Chairman.

The notion underlying the phrase kangaroo closure was explained in two newspapers published on Saturday 21^st August 1909:

1-: From the column Occasional Notes, published in The Evening News (London, England):

Lord Robert Cecil referred last night to the new rule of closure as the “kangaroo closure,” because the chairman in choosing amendments can jump over as many as he thinks fit. No disrespect to the Chair was intended by this mental picture of Mr. Emmott ³ at exercise.

³ Alfred Emmott (1858-1926), 1st Baron Emmott: Member of Parliament for Oldham from 1899 to 1911, Chairman of Ways and Means (Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons) from 1906 to 1911.

2-: From The Daily Mirror (London, England):

A new name was given to the guillotine. Lord Robert Cecil called it the “kangaroo closure.”
It should be explained that the Government’s latest form of closure empowers the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman to “jump over” hundreds of amendments on the paper.