Chapter 9 - Motions
and amendments
Rescission
of resolutions and orders
A resolution or
order of the Senate may be rescinded only if seven days’ notice is given of the
rescission motion and if the motion is carried by an absolute majority of
senators (SO 87).
A rescission properly so called has the retrospective effect of
annulling or quashing a decision from the time that decision was made as if it
had never been made. Rescission motions are therefore rare: it is seldom the
intention to achieve that effect.
It is not necessary to rescind a resolution or order if the intention
is simply to cease the operation of the resolution or order prospectively; this
can be done by a new resolution or order and does not require a rescission
motion.
The Senate and committees frequently make decisions which reverse or
modify previous decisions with prospective effect. Such amending decisions are
not treated as rescissions or as in any way different from other decisions
which have a prospective effect. For example, the Senate may agree to an order
that it meet on a particular day but subsequently alter the times of its
meetings so that it does not meet on that day. This is not regarded as a
rescission of the original decision, but simply as an amendment or modification
of it with effect for the future. Similarly, a committee which has agreed to
part of a draft report may decide to reconsider that part without rescinding
its original agreement to it. Many decisions of this character are frequently
made. At one time it was thought that the presence in an order of the words
“unless otherwise ordered” was vital to the ability to change a decision in this
way, but decisions have been altered regardless of the absence or presence of
those words, and they are not now usually used in orders of the Senate.
In the distant past procedural difficulties ensued when rescission was
thought, mistakenly, to be necessary. Rescission motions were occasionally
used, instead of a suspension of standing orders, to circumvent the rule
against considering a proposal the same as one already determined (see Same
question rule, below).
Under section 48 of
the Legislative
Instruments Act 2003, an instrument that has been disallowed by a House of
the Parliament may not be remade within six months of the disallowance unless
the disallowing House has rescinded its resolution of disallowance. Motions for
the purposes of the equivalent provision in the past were regarded as
rescission motions within the meaning of standing order 87, and therefore as
requiring seven days’ notice and an absolute majority. As such a motion, however,
in effect gives permission for the remaking of a disallowed instrument and
therefore has only a prospective effect, it is not technically a rescission
motion and is now not subject to those requirements (13/5/2004, J.3415). (See Supplement)
Previous page | Contents | Next page
Website feedback: web.senate@aph.gov.au
Last reviewed 10 September 2010 by the Senate Web Administrator
© Commonwealth of Australia
Parliament of Australia Web Site Privacy Statement
Images courtesy of AUSPIC
|
