Chapter 5 - Parliament and the Law

Question 1

Statute Law

Answer 1

Laws made by parliament

Question 2

Common Law

Answer 2

Laws made by courts

Question 3

Constitutional Law

Answer 3

High court interprets law to resole dispute

Question 4

Delegated legislation

Answer 4

Laws made by anyone other than states or parliament

Question 5

What statute law is capable of doing

Repealing

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What statute law is capable of doing

Abrogating

Answer 6

Parliament pass a law to override a court decision
e.g. Trigwell 1979, passed the highways (liability for straying animals act in 1983)

Question 7

What statute law is capable of doing

Codifying

Answer 7

Parliament introduces legislation to provide an exhaustive set of statutory rules
e.g. Native Title Act 1993, gave rights over land

Question 8

What statute law is capable of doing

Consolidating

Answer 8

Parliament introduces legislation to repeal a number of previous statutes to join them together in one
e.g. Social services act 1947

Question 9

What statute law is capable of doing

Amending

Answer 9

Parliament introduce legislation to make a change to a current law
e.g. Marriage amendment act 2017

Question 10

Legislative process

Answer 10

• starts with an idea
• gov dominate house of reps
  e.g. law reform, election platform
• idea drafted into bill

Question 11

Steps of Legislative process

Answer 11

1. cabinet approves drafting legislation to implement proposed law
2. the relevant government department lawyers draft a document called ‘drafting instruction’
3. articulate bill into words
4. prepares a draft bill
5. bill sent to cabinet for approval
6. cabinet approve bill

Question 12

Notice paper

Answer 12

clerk of the house of reps arranges for the bill to be listed on a notice paper (timetable of events)

Question 13

First reading

Answer 13

clerk announces next notice and reads title, copies of bill given to MP’s and is published

Question 14

second reading

Answer 14

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

Question 15

house committee

Answer 15

• 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

Question 16

third reading

Answer 16

• final vote on whether house of reps support bill
• a government bill is usually supported
• majority of those sitting in house of reps agree

Question 17

senate proceedings

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

private member’s bills

Answer 18

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)

Question 19

tactics in house of reps

Guillotine

Answer 19

government claims a bill is urgent and must be passed quickly, they suspend the amount of time spent on it

Question 20

tactics in house of reps

gag

Answer 20

government can silence cross bench, stops them from talking. they can interrupt cross bench whilst talking and vote to silence

Question 21

tactics in house of reps

flood gating

Answer 21

government intoduce multiple bills at once to overwhelm the cross benches, they can not adequatley scrutanise bill

Question 22

committees

Answer 22

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

Question 23

committees

house committee

Answer 23

made of MP’s

Question 24

committees

senate committees

Answer 24

made of senators

Question 25

committees

joint committees

Answer 25

MP’s and senators

Question 26

committees

select committees

Answer 26

created for specific purpose, when done it is disbanded

Question 27

accountability

Answer 27

• ensures gov is doing correct thing
• watches what they do
• liberal democracy has good accountability

Question 29

scrutiny

Answer 29

senate -> holds gov to account
parliamentary committee -> scrutinise bills and makes recommendations on how they can improve

Question 30

lack of accountability and scrutiny

Answer 30

• executive dominance –> no meaningful debate of legislation
• gags, guillotine, floodgating
• gov has majority in both houses
• back room deals with greens

Question 31

case study

Answer 31

• 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