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Regulations and Ordinances Committee
The Senate Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances was established
in 1932 and, apart from certain Committees dealing with internal parliamentary
matters, is the oldest Senate Committee. Its functions, which are set
out in Senate Standing Order 23, are to scrutinise all disallowable instruments
of delegated legislation to ensure their compliance with non-partisan
principles of personal rights and parliamentary propriety. The Committee
engages in technical legislative scrutiny. It does not examine the policy
merits of delegated legislation. Rather, it applies parliamentary standards
to ensure the highest possible quality of delegated legislation, supported
by its power to recommend to the Senate that a particular instrument,
or a discrete provision in an instrument, be disallowed.
The Committee has six members with a government Chair and a non-government
Deputy Chair. The Committee is advised by an independent legal adviser,
who examines and reports on every instrument of delegated legislation,
comments on all correspondence received from Ministers, writes special
reports and attends meetings of the Committee when required.
The Committee makes special statements to the Senate on matters arising
out of its scrutiny of delegated legislation and tables an Annual Report
on the work of the Committee during a financial year. The secretariat
also produces the Procedure Office publication, the Delegated Legislation
Monitor, which is the only reference source for all disallowable instruments
of delegated legislation tabled in the Parliament. The Monitor
is produced at the end of each sitting week and includes a brief description
and details of each instrument.
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