Chapter 12 - Legislation
Transmittal to House of Representatives
When a bill has been read a third time,
it is certified by the Clerk as having passed
the Senate and is forwarded to the House of Representatives with a message signed by the President.
In the case of a
bill originating in the Senate, it is printed with any amendments made by the
Senate and the message requests the concurrence of the House with the bill. If
a bill originating in the House of Representatives is agreed to by the Senate
without amendment it is returned to the House with a message indicating the
Senate’s agreement to it and it is then forwarded to the Governor-General for
assent. If a bill originating in the House has been amended, a schedule of
amendments is attached to the bill, it is returned to the House and the message
requests the concurrence of the House with the amendments.
When an amendment made by the Senate to a
bill received from the House of Representatives is modified by a subsequent
amendment also made by the Senate, both amendments may be included in the
schedule of amendments made by the Senate to the bill. The rationale of this is
that the successive decisions of the Senate are taken to mean that, while the
Senate wishes the first amendment to be made to the bill, it has a preference
for the second amendment. The inclusion of both amendments in the schedule of
amendments gives the government the options of agreeing to either or both
amendments. This also provides greater flexibility for subsequent dealings
between the two Houses on the matter. If the government in the House of
Representatives agrees to the first amendment but disagrees with the modifying
amendment, in effect it adopts the second preference of the Senate, the third
preference being the relevant provision in the bill unamended. In effect, the
government in that situation accepts part of the Senate's position. If the bill
is returned to the Senate with only the first amendment agreed to, the Senate
then may determine whether it accepts this partial adoption of its position or
whether it will insist on its preferred position.
Amendments which are modified by
subsequent amendments and which are included in the Senate's schedule of
amendments are clearly amendments which have been made by the Senate within the
terms of section 57 of the Constitution. The inclusion of such an amendment in
the Senate's schedule of amendments clearly determines that question.
In 1992 it was necessary to correct a
Senate schedule of amendments to a bill which included amendments not agreed to
by the Senate; for an account of this case, see OASP, 8th
ed, pp 258-9.
In 2000 the
Senate repeatedly sent messages to the House requesting the House to consider a
private senator’s bill, the Human Rights (Mandatory Sentencing of Juvenile
Offenders) Bill, which the government refused to consider (13/3/2000, J.2428;
3/4/2000, J.2491, 2503).
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