Chapter 16 - Committees
Referral
of matters to committees
Legislation
The reference of bills to the
committees may be achieved by one of several methods. Bills may be referred by
ordinary resolution following the giving of a notice in the manner described
above for general inquiries. An amendment may be moved to the motion that a
particular bill be read a second time to refer the bill to a committee as an
alternative to giving it a second reading or in consequence of it being given a
second reading (SO 114(3)).
Immediately after a bill has been read a second time, a motion may be moved
without notice referring the bill to a committee (SO 115(2)). The most
common method is for a bill to be referred to a committee as a consequence of
the adoption of a report by the Selection of Bills
Committee (SO 24A). This
committee, comprising the whips of the major
and minority parties and four other senators, meets weekly when the Senate is
sitting to consider which bills introduced into the Senate or due for
introduction should be referred to committees for inquiry and report. The
committee decides which bills should be referred, to which committee, at what
stage and on what date the committee should present its report.
This system for the referral of bills leaves it open to individual
committees to determine their own procedures. Committees are able to determine
the most appropriate method of dealing with particular bills. The most common
approach adopted by committees is for evidence to be sought from as wide a
range of witnesses as practicable in the time available, including by written
submission and by oral evidence at public hearings. Although most legislation
inquiries occur in Canberra, some committees travel to obtain evidence. Committees
may consider in detail or in principle amendments to bills that have been
circulated or foreshadowed and make recommendations to the Senate accordingly.
Alternatively, it may not be until all the evidence has been gathered that
unintended consequences or unforseen problems with a bill emerge. A committee
may recommend that particular amendments be agreed to but the bill itself may be
amended only by the Senate. (See also Chapter 12, Legislation.)
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