10. BILLS—GENERAL
A new Commonwealth law can only be made, or an existing one changed or removed, by or under the authority of the Federal Parliament—that is, by or in accordance with an Act of Parliament.
A bill is a proposal for a new law or for a change to one or more existing laws. To become law a bill must be passed in identical form by both Houses of the Parliament and be assented to by the Governor-General. On assent a bill becomes an Act of Parliament.
Bills may be initiated in either House. However, because of the constitutional requirement that certain types of financial legislation shall not originate in the Senate, and because most Ministers are members of the House of Representatives, the majority of bills originate in the House of Representatives.
Although most bills are government bills, introduced by Ministers, any Member of the House may introduce a bill.
Form of a bill—procedurally relevant aspects
A bill is in effect a draft Act, and the content of a bill is prepared in the exact form of the Act it is intended to become. The body of a bill consists of a series of numbered clauses. When the bill is enacted, the clauses of the bill become the sections of the Act. Clauses may be divided into subclauses, paragraphs and subparagraphs. Large bills may be divided into Parts, Divisions and Subdivisions.
A schedule is an attachment or appendix to a bill (or Act). It is given legislative effect by an activating clause in the body of the bill. The usual form of an amending bill (a bill to amend an existing Act or Acts) is for the amendments to be listed as numbered items in one or more schedules to the bill.
A bills explanatory memorandum is a separate document outlining the intention of a bill and summarising its provisions.
The title by which a bill is generally known (for example, Trade Practices Bill 1999) is referred to as its short title. Every bill also has at its head a long title which sets out in brief terms the purposes of the bill or may provide a short description of the scope of a bill. The words commencing the long title are usually either A Bill for an Act to . . . or A Bill for an Act relating to . . .. A procedural reference to the title of a bill, without being qualified, may be taken to mean the long title.
The long title of a bill is procedurally significant. The long title of the bill to be introduced must agree with the title used in the notice of intention to present it, and no clause may be included in the bill which does not come within the scope of the long title (S.O. 213). A long title which is specific and limited in scope is known as restricted, and one which is wide in scope as unrestricted. This distinction has significance to the nature of amendments which can be moved (see Second reading: Second reading amendment and see Consideration in detail: Amendments) and in relation to relevance in debate (see Second reading: Nature of debate—relevance).
Printing and availability of bills
As soon as a bill has been presented to the House copies are circulated to Members in the Chamber, along with copies of the explanatory memorandum. Additional copies are available to Members from the Table Office and Sub-Table Office. A bill is treated as confidential by the officers of the House until it is presented, and no distribution is made until that time.
If a bill is amended at the detail stage it is reprinted incorporating the amendments before it is transmitted to the Senate. This is known as a third reading print.
Copies of bills and explanatory memorandums may be purchased from Government Info Shops. They are also available in electronic form via the Parliaments Internet site at http://www.aph.gov.au/legis.htm.
The Table Office issues the Daily Bills List, which lists bills currently before the Parliament and the stage reached by each bill. This publication is also available via the Internet.
Presentation of bills for assent
When a bill has passed both Houses, special assent copies of the bill are printed, incorporating any amendments not yet included, and it is presented by the originating House to the Governor-General for assent.
Under section 58 of the Constitution the Governor-General may assent to the bill, withhold assent, reserve the bill for the Queens pleasure, or recommend amendments to the bill.
Before assenting, the Governor-General formally receives written advice from the Attorney-General as to whether there are any amendments that the Governor-General should recommend, and as to whether the Governor-General should, in the Attorney-Generals opinion, reserve the bill for the Queens pleasure. This advice, known as the Attorney-Generals Certificate, is prepared by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel.
It is very rare for amendments to be recommended by the Governor-General. Generally, they would be of a formal nature or for the purpose of correcting a mistake or omission. There is nowadays no constitutional or legal requirement to reserve bills for the Queens assent.
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