How laws are made?
- The idea for the law is formulated and turned into a bill
- First reading (first house)
- Second reading (first house)
- Consideration in detail (first house)
- Third reading (first house)
- First reading (second house)
- Second reading (second house)
- Consideration in detail (second house)
- Third reading (second house)
- Royal Assent
What happens in the first reading?
- The clerk reads out only the title of the bill
- There is no discussion, there is no vote.
What happens in the second reading?
- The member introducing the bill gives a speech where they outline the need for and key features of the bill.
- Other members, who by now have read the bill, get to give a speech and give their opinion on the bill.
- There is a vote about whether to keep going with this bill.
What happens in the consideration in detail phase?
- During this stage, the bill is reviewed in detail sentence by sentence.
- So rather than people making speeches about the bill, they actually go through the bill word by word to make sure they are happy with every part of it.
- Amendments or changes may be suggested, debated and recommended.
- Any changes will be reported back to the house.
What happens in the third reading?
- After all of the words have been debated and agreed, it goes back to the house.
- There is no debate but there is one last vote on the bill.
What happens in the second house?
- Once it passes the first house, the bill goes through exactly the same stages in the second House.
- If the bill is amended in any way at all by the second House, it must be
returned to the first house to be voted on again. - If passed, it soon becomes law – but only after it receives Royal Assent
What is Royal Assent?
- If the bill is passed in the second house, it is presented to the Governor for royal assent.
- If the Governor signs it, the bill then becomes an Act of Parliament.
Why does parliament need to make new laws/change them?
Parliament can choose to change laws for several different reasons:
1. Response to change in the world (eg technology)
2. Response to pressure from groups outside of parliament (eg media)
3. A different political party wins the election and they want to change things
4. Change in policy
How are laws changed?
- The process for changing an existing law is exactly the same as the process when a new law is made (three readings, all the votes and debate).
How people can influence laws?
Through demonstrations and protests
What is a demonstration/protest?
Gathering of a group of people to try to influence government policy/legislation
How can demonstrations influence the government?
Demonstrations can exert influence on government in two ways:
1. By showing the elected politicians how much existing support there is for their cause
2. By attracting new support among other members of the public for the relevant cause
What are the strengths of demonstrations?
- Easy and cheap to organise
- Can attract a lot of media attention: which can help to influence politicians and attract new supporters.
- If well organised, can attract new support
What are the weaknesses of demonstrations?
- Hard to attract a lot of people
- If it gets out of hand/violent, it will get negative attention – this can lead to a loss of support.
- Parliament can easily ignore (especially if its small)
What does a party need to pass laws?
- For the party in government to be able to pass new laws, they need to get separate
majority of votes in both houses of parliament – the lower house and the upper house
What is the Balance of Power?
- Balance of power refers to the position held by minor parties or individual members
of parliament when their vote is necessary for bills or motions to be passed. - Such minor parties or independents are said to hold the balance of power – without
their support, the government cannot get enough votes to pass bills.
What are strengths of minor parties holding the balance of power?
- It means the government does not have too much power (they have to consult others before they pass a law)
- The views of more members of the community and members of parliament are represented.
What are weaknesses of minor parties holding the balance of power?
- The party who got voted in doesn’t hold the power to make laws by themselves (they can’t do what they want)
- Not very democratic (the parties who hold the balance of power have a lot of power, yet they might not have got very many votes).
What is the VLRC? What is its job?
- The Victorian Law Reform Commision (VLRC) is a government agency that makes recommendations to parliament about laws.
- The VLRC cannot change the law – it can only make
recommendations to Parliament about how the law should change
