Legislative Process Flashcards
What are the purposes for passing statute law?
- allowing the government to implement their policies and carry out their mandate
- authorising the budget and government spending.
- amending or repealing existing law to reflect community values.
- consolidating laws to ensure they apply consistently.
- responding to court decisions by abrogating common law
- codifying common law to increase clarity and consistency
Explain how passing statute law allows the government to carry out their mandate and provide an example.
- During their election campaign, parties make promises about laws they would pass or change if they were to be elected. Once elected, the government claims a mandate to implement their election policies. Statute law and the legislative process provides a legitimate way for the government to turn their mandate into law.
- For example, the Morrison government based their election of the three stage tax cut policy. Once elected, stage one and two were passed by parliament into statute law, however the third stage that focused on higher income earners was blocked by the opposition and crossbench in the senate.
Explain how passing statute law can authorise the budget and government spending. Provide an example.
- In order to govern and implement policies, the executive requires the parliament to pass statute law that authorises their spending as stated in S88 of the constitution).
- In order to pay for the job keeper and job seeker policies in response to covid-19, the parliament had to pass statute law.
Explain how passing statute law can amend or repeal existing law to reflect community values and provide an example.
- Often parties will campaign to remove or change laws once they’re elected. E.g. How the Abbott government acted upon a promise to repeal the carbon tax in 2013.
- Laws can also be changed and updated to reflect community values. E.g. The marriage amendment bill 2017.
Explain how passing statute law can consolidate laws to ensure they are applied consistently and provide an example.
- Periodically the parliament will repeal several old acts and replace them with one consolidating act to ensure that laws remain clear, consistent, and updated.
- E.g. In 1947 govt. Consolidated old legislation relating to age pension and created a new act which covered a wide range of welfare rather than having distinct separate acts.
Explain how passing statute law can “respond to court decisions by abrogating common law”. Provide an example.
- Sometimes the parliament will pass law that abrogates common law. This means that statute law will override common law and prevent it from applying in future cases. E.g. Trigwell (1979)
- Sometimes the parliament will pass law that clarifies common law. This means the new legislation supports to common law but provides clarity regarding how it will operate. E.g. Mabo 1992
Explain how passing statute law can codify common law to increase clarity and consistency. Provide an example.
Mabo 1992 -> native title act 1993
What is delegated legislation?
Delegated legislation refers to how delegating authorities, in this case parliament, gives law making power to subordinate authorities which is the executive. This can be departments, agencies, ministers, etc.
What are the purposes of delegating legislation?
- Efficiency. Some law making is of low-order and does not require the high levels of deliberation that the parliament provides through the legislative process. Delegating legislation saves parliament time for more pressing and important matters.
- Responsiveness to emergency situations. The deliberative law-making process provided by parliament is very lengthy and slow, which means it can sometimes be too slow to respond to emergency events. By delegating powers to a subordinate authority, parliament can ensure that Australia can respond quickly to changing circumstances or emergencies. E.g. ASIO who investigate threats to Australia’s security.
What is executive dominance?
Executive dominance refers to when a parliamentary executive dominates the House of Representatives. This happens because government is formed by the political party that has support if the majority of the lower house. The leader of the government is then the prime minister. As part of the executive and a member of government within the legislature, there is executive dominance.
What is the gag tactic?
The gag, in which the govt. can move a motions that the bill be put to a vote immediately after the second reading debate in order to prevent further debate as members who were listed to speak to the bill lose the opportunity to do so.
What is the guillotine tactic?
The guillotine, in where before debate commences on a bill, the govt. Can move a motion that allows the time allocated to debate to be set to a certain limit. Once the time limit expires, debate ceases and a vote is taken.
How does executive dominance affect private member’s bills?
Executive dominance also limits opportunity for private member bills. PMBs are very important as they often bring to light topics the government has chosen not to legislate on (whether they were unwilling to or is highly divisive). PMBs are often voted down by the executive who have a majority of seats in the HoR.
Is there executive dominance in the senate?
Unless there is a double majority, no. The senate acts as an effective house of review as it is (usually) free of executive dominance due to the proportional electoral system used. The government must negotiate with crossbenchers in the senate in order to pass legislation. This also means tactics like gag and guillotine are unlikely to pass.
What is a parliamentary committee?
Parliamentary committees investigate issues and proposed laws in detail so that members of parliament are well informed before voting and making decisions. They are created as parliament often has limited time to debate complex ideas in detail. Members of parliament can vote to appoint a committee to take on the role - of which they have weeks or months to look into.
