Chapter 5 - Parliament and the Law Flashcards
Statute Law
Laws made by parliament
Common Law
Laws made by courts
Constitutional Law
High court interprets law to resole dispute
Delegated legislation
Laws made by anyone other than states or parliament
What statute law is capable of doing
Repealing
Parliament pass a law to remove a previous act
e.g. clean energy legislation (carbon tax repeal act 2014), when Tony Abbot was Prime Minister
What statute law is capable of doing
Abrogating
Parliament pass a law to override a court decision
e.g. Trigwell 1979, passed the highways (liability for straying animals act in 1983)
What statute law is capable of doing
Codifying
Parliament introduces legislation to provide an exhaustive set of statutory rules
e.g. Native Title Act 1993, gave rights over land
What statute law is capable of doing
Consolidating
Parliament introduces legislation to repeal a number of previous statutes to join them together in one
e.g. Social services act 1947
What statute law is capable of doing
Amending
Parliament introduce legislation to make a change to a current law
e.g. Marriage amendment act 2017
Legislative process
- starts with an idea
- gov dominate house of reps
e.g. law reform, election platform - idea drafted into bill
Steps of Legislative process
- cabinet approves drafting legislation to implement proposed law
- the relevant government department lawyers draft a document called ‘drafting instruction’
- articulate bill into words
- prepares a draft bill
- bill sent to cabinet for approval
- cabinet approve bill
Notice paper
clerk of the house of reps arranges for the bill to be listed on a notice paper (timetable of events)
First reading
clerk announces next notice and reads title, copies of bill given to MP’s and is published
second reading
the member intorducing bill makes a speech to the chamber. a debate occurs to see is gov are for or against, opportunity to attack person.
vote occurs, majorty of MP’s must vote in favour to continue to next step
house committee
- optional stage
- bill sent to smaller group of members of house of reps
- looks into bill and makes recommendations of imporvements
house committees not often used
third reading
- final vote on whether house of reps support bill
- a government bill is usually supported
- majority of those sitting in house of reps agree
senate proceedings
- bills are more likely to be sent to committees in senate as the gov does not often have a majority rule
- majority rule is 38 out of 76 votes
- senate hold gov to account
private member’s bills
a bill introduced by a non gov member (any member of gov whos not a minister). no oppostion bills have been passed
e.g. oppostion, independents, minor parties
e.g. not passed - ending poverty in australia bill 2023 (rice)
tactics in house of reps
Guillotine
government claims a bill is urgent and must be passed quickly, they suspend the amount of time spent on it
tactics in house of reps
gag
government can silence cross bench, stops them from talking. they can interrupt cross bench whilst talking and vote to silence
tactics in house of reps
flood gating
government intoduce multiple bills at once to overwhelm the cross benches, they can not adequatley scrutanise bill
committees
scrutanise legislation and gov performance. only step that allows genuine review of bills. they are a small group of senators and MP’s. they make sure the proposed legislatoion is fair, this slows the legislative process. they give recommendations to change
committees
house committee
made of MP’s
committees
senate committees
made of senators
committees
joint committees
MP’s and senators
committees
select committees
created for specific purpose, when done it is disbanded
accountability
- ensures gov is doing correct thing
- watches what they do
- liberal democracy has good accountability
scrutiny
senate -> holds gov to account
parliamentary committee -> scrutinise bills and makes recommendations on how they can improve
lack of accountability and scrutiny
- executive dominance –> no meaningful debate of legislation
- gags, guillotine, floodgating
- gov has majority in both houses
- back room deals with greens
case study
- gov introduced migration ammendment bill 2024.
- many concerns due to it giving minister power to deport immigrants
- trying to give more power to deport 149 other immigrants
