Chapter 12 - Legislation
House amendments on Senate bills
If the House of
Representatives agrees without amendment to a bill originating in the Senate,
it is returned to the Senate with a message to that effect and is then
forwarded to the Governor-General for assent.
If the House
makes amendments to a bill originating in the Senate, the bill is returned with
a schedule of the amendments and a message requesting the Senate’s concurrence
with the amendments.
Amendments made
by the House to Senate bills usually have the effect of reversing amendments
which the Senate has made to government bills in the Senate and to which the
government has disagreed.
A Senate bill
returned from the House is considered with the House’s message in committee of
the whole. The committee determines how the House amendments should be dealt
with, and reports to the Senate, which may then adopt the course of action
agreed to by the committee.
When the
committee of the whole reports, the bill and the House’s message may be
recommitted by means of an amendment to the motion to adopt the committee’s
report (29/11/1912, J.178).
The Senate may,
in response to House amendments:
- agree to the
amendments
- disagree to the
amendments
- agree to the
amendments with amendments
- order the bill to be laid aside (that is, abandon the bill; in the case of
a government bill this means, in effect, rejecting the bill) (SO 126(2)).
As in the
circumstance of Senate amendments disagreed to by the House (see below, under
Disagreement of House with Senate amendments), elements of these courses of
action may be combined in one motion, which may then be put in divided form, or
separate motions may be moved in relation to different House amendments (Sydney
Harbour Federation Trust Bill 2000, 6-7/2/2001, J.3860-1, 3885-93, 3902-3).
Agreement to an
amendment made in the House does not preclude an amendment to the motion for
the adoption of the report of the committee of the whole expressing the
Senate’s opinion on relevant matters (Broadcasting Legislation Amendment Bill 2001, 28/3/2001, J.4118-9).
When House
amendments to a bill are considered in committee of the whole, attention is
directed exclusively to the amendments and matters relevant to the amendments,
and other aspects of the bill are not open for reconsideration. An amendment may not be proposed to an
amendment of the House unless it is relevant to it, and a further amendment to
the bill may not be moved unless it is relevant to, or consequent on, the
acceptance, amendment or rejection of a House amendment (SO 126(3)). This rule ensures that, when a
bill is returned, further consideration of it is confined to the matters of
disagreement between the Houses and attention is focused on attempting to
secure agreement on those matters. (An exposition of the similar rule applying
to bills originating in the House of Representatives (see below) was provided
by President Baker, SD, 11/6/1903, pp 759-60. This rule does not apply to
requests for amendments to bills originating in the House of Representatives:
see Chapter 13, Financial Legislation, under Procedure on financial
legislation.)
For a suspension
of standing orders to allow the moving of new amendments to a bill not relevant
to amendments made by the House, see International War Crimes Tribunal Bill,
1/2/1995, J.2822.
For the putting
of further amendments consisting of the omission of clauses or items, see below
under Disagreement of House with Senate amendments
If House
amendments to a Senate bill are agreed to, the House is informed by message
accordingly and the bill proceeds to the Governor-General with those amendments
(SO 126(4)).
If the Senate
amends the House amendments, the bill is returned to the House and its
concurrence with the Senate’s amendments is sought (SO 126(5)).
If the Senate disagrees to House
amendments, it may lay the bill aside or return it to
the House of Representatives asking the House to reconsider its amendments (SO 126(6)).
If the Senate disagrees to House
amendments, the message to the House includes a statement of the Senate’s
reasons for not agreeing to the amendments. There are two methods of drawing up
the statement of reasons; a committee may be appointed to do so, or a motion
without notice may be moved to adopt a statement of reasons (SO 126(7), (8)). Usually the latter method is
employed.
If the House of
Representatives again returns the bill indicating that the House:
(a) insists on its
original amendments to which the Senate has disagreed;
(b) disagrees
to amendments made by the Senate on the original amendments of the House of
Representatives; or
(c) agrees
to amendments made by the Senate on the original amendments of the House of Representatives,
with further amendments,
the bill and the
House’s message are considered in committee of the whole, and the Senate may:
(d)
agree, with or
without amendment, to the amendments to which it had previously disagreed, and
make, if necessary, consequential amendments to the bill;
(e)
insist on its
disagreement to such amendments;
(f)
withdraw its
amendments and agree to the original amendments of the House of Representatives;
(g)
make further
amendments to the bill consequent upon the rejection of its amendments;
(h)
propose new
amendments as alternative to the amendments to which the House of
Representatives has disagreed;
(i)
insist on its
amendments to which the House of Representatives has disagreed;
(j)
agree, with or
without amendment, to such further amendments of the House of Representatives,
making consequential amendments to the bill, if necessary; or
(k)
disagree to the
further amendments and insist on its own amendments which the House of
Representatives has amended. (SO 127(1))
These
procedures, while focussing attention on the matters of disagreement between
the Houses, give the Senate maximum freedom to seek agreement on those matters
(an exposition of the similar procedures applying to bills originating in the
House (see below) was provided by President Baker, SD, 8/12/1904, pp 8062-3).
If the Senate
agrees to the actions of the House of Representatives, the House is so informed
and the bill proceeds accordingly.
If the Senate does not agree with the
actions of the House and the House of Representatives still does not agree with
the course of action taken by the Senate, the Senate may order the bill to be laid
aside or request a conference with the House (SO 127(1); for conferences, see Chapter 21,
Relations with the House of Representatives, under Conferences).
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