No. 18 - Senate chamber documents
This brief guide
describes the formal documents of record
of the Senate and other documents used in the Senate Chamber in the course of
business. Most of the documents are
available in hard copy from the Senate Table Office or electronically from the
Senate website.
1. The
Basics
The Senate’s
operating rules are contained in standing orders which govern the conduct of
proceedings. The standing orders are
supplemented by other orders and resolutions relating to:
Standing orders are
made and amended from time to time by the Senate under the authority of section 50 of the Constitution. Proposed changes to standing or other orders
are usually examined first by the Procedure Committee which reports
periodically to the Senate.
Standing orders cover
a wide range of topics, from the election of the President to the composition
of and rules for committees, the handling of legislation, the rules of debate,
the routine of business and the conduct of senators. They are supplemented by other, miscellaneous
procedural orders. When a procedural
question arises that is not covered by the standing or other orders, the
President of the Senate makes a ruling.
If the President’s ruling is challenged, the Senate itself determines
the question.
Within the framework
of the routine of business set by the standing orders, the Senate’s proceedings
are guided by an agenda and recorded in minutes and a transcript of
debate. The agenda is called the Notice Paper, the minutes the Journals of the Senate and the
transcript of debate the Parliamentary
Debates or Hansard. Publication of all three documents is
authorised by standing order 43.
—Notice Paper
The Notice Paper
contains a list of business before the Senate on a particular day, and also
includes known forthcoming business and other useful information. Business is placed on the Notice Paper in accordance with the
standing orders. For example, items of
business are grouped in their several categories which are listed in order of
priority as required by standing order 58 (See Brief Guide No. 8—Categories of Business). Standing order 62 specifies how orders of
the day for debate on committee reports and government responses are to be
listed on Thursdays (see Brief Guide No. 3—Opportunities for debating documents
and reports). Notices of
motion and orders of the day are listed separately and in accordance with
standing orders 76 and 97.
The contents page of the Notice
Paper and the “Guide to the Notice Paper” published at the
back of each issue give an overview of the structure of the document and
provide assistance to users.
—The “Red”
The Order
of Business or Senate “Red”, after the red flash printed on its
front page, is an informal version of the agenda. This is an invaluable document for senators
and staff alike because, although it is only a guide, the Red sets out the full
day’s likely program. Based on the
routine of business for that day in the standing orders, the Red incorporates
lists of business from the Notice Paper
where appropriate and also includes known details of expected business, such as
the titles of documents or reports to be tabled that day. Otherwise unscheduled items are also included
where details are known sufficiently in advance, such as messages from the
House of Representatives, the topics of ministerial statements, committee
reports and government responses.
A dynamic version of the Red is available
online to authorised users of the parliamentary computing network. The Dynamic Red provides information on the
outcomes of the various items of business as the day progresses, together with
links to relevant documents.
—Journals
of the Senate
The Senate’s minutes
are a procedural record of the day, noting each decision, vote, tabled document
or other procedurally significant event.
Each Journal concludes with a record of
attendance to ensure compliance with section 20 of the Constitution, which
provides that a senator’s place becomes vacant if he or she is absent without
leave for 2 months. The Journals are issued in proof form at the
end of each sitting day and a final version is published some weeks later when
the contents have been rigorously checked.
—Senate Daily Summary
An informal version
of the Journals, called the Senate
Daily Summary (SDS) is mainly directed at external audiences to make
the work of the Senate more widely accessible.
In SDS, the previous day’s work is described under general headings such
as “Legislation”, “Committees”, “Documents” and “Motions agreed to”, bringing
together for easy reference items that would otherwise need to be collated from
the spread of entries in the Journals. SDS is an online document with hyperlinks to
primary sources such as the Journals,
Hansard and the texts of bills and
reports.
—Hansard
Hansard is the edited
transcript of proceedings in both Houses and their committees. For the Houses, proof Hansards are produced
after each day’s sitting. These are then
consolidated into weekly Hansards. Hansard
is also available in electronic form through the Internet in PDF or HTML
format.
2. Documents
relating to the legislative process
—Bills
The central document
for the purposes of the legislative process is the bill. A bill is a proposed
Act of Parliament which becomes law only after it has been agreed to in
identical terms by both Houses and assented to by the Governor-General. Most bills are proposed by the government of
the day. As soon as bills are
introduced, printed copies are distributed and the electronic text is placed on
Billsnet.
—Explanatory
memoranda
Each government bill
is accompanied on introduction by an explanatory
memorandum (or EM for short). This
document is meant to be a user’s guide to the bill which explains its general
policy and financial impact, followed by detailed explanations of the individual
clauses or items. If a bill is amended
by the initiating House, a revised EM
incorporating the changes is tabled when the bill is introduced in the second
House.
If the interpretation
of a provision in an Act arises in legal proceedings, courts may use the
explanatory memorandum and other extrinsic
aids, that is, materials which do not form part of the Act, to confirm or
determine the meaning of the provision if there is any ambiguity. Other extrinsic aids include section headings
and notes printed in the Act, the parliamentary debates, particularly the
Minister’s second reading speech, and relevant parliamentary committee or other
reports that were tabled in Parliament before the bill was considered.
—Amendments
Amendments are
circulated in the chamber on the authority of the senator or minister
sponsoring them. Non-government senators
are assisted by the Clerk Assistant (Procedure) in drawing up their amendments
while government amendments are usually produced by the government drafters
(the Office of Parliamentary Counsel).
Amendments are usually produced as A4 sized documents with a unique
identifying number in the top right hand corner, the name of the bill, the name
of the senator moving them and the stage at which they are to be moved. Textual amendments are made in committee of
the whole but a senator may also wish to amend the second reading motion.
—Requests
Requests look very
similar to amendments in presentation but they are procedurally different. Under the Constitution there are some bills
the Senate may not amend and some amendments the Senate may not make. The Senate requests the House of Representatives to make such amendments and
withholds agreement to the third reading of the bill till an agreed outcome is
achieved (see Brief Guide No. 9—Consideration of Legislation). An order of the Senate requires requests to
be accompanied by a statement explaining why the amendments are framed as
requests, and a statement by the Clerk of the Senate on whether the amendments
would be regarded as requests under the precedents of the Senate.
—Supplementary explanatory memoranda
Government amendments
and requests are normally accompanied by a supplementary EM explaining the proposed
changes. The supplementary EM is usually
tabled by a minister or parliamentary secretary at the beginning of the
committee of the whole stage. If more
government amendments or requests are circulated, new supplementary EMs are
prepared and are distinguished from earlier documents by the inclusion of terms
such as “further” or “additional” (or both) in the title.
—The Running Sheet
An informal but
invaluable aid to proceedings in committee of the whole, the running sheet is a
marshalled list of circulated amendments for the guidance of the chair and
participating senators and their advisers
Running sheets give a brief description of each amendment or group of
amendments and provide a suggested order of proceeding. They also highlight where circulated
amendments may conflict with one another and if amendments are consequential on
others being agreed to. They are
prepared only if complex amendments are circulated by two or more senators. If further or revised amendments are
circulated, running sheets are updated, if practicable, to reflect the
changes. Running sheets are prepared
solely for use in the chamber. They may
change rapidly and are not, therefore, published on the Internet. Copies may be obtained from the Senate Table
Office or Chamber Attendants and are easily identified because they are printed
on grey, A4 sized paper.
For further
information about the legislative process, see Brief Guide No. 9—Consideration of legislation and
Brief Guide No. 15—Communications between the
Houses—dealing with messages.
3. Procedural
and other documents
Certain other
documents are distributed in the Senate chamber to facilitate proceedings. Some are for the use of individual senators,
others for general use.
—Documents for individual senators
Procedural scripts
are provided, as required, to assist senators to transact business. They may relate to the giving of notices of
motion, the discovery of formal business, the introduction of bills, the
suspension of standing orders, the presentation of reports or other common or
uncommon procedures. A document, based
on the Red, together with other briefings and updates as required, is also
provided to the President, Deputy President and the Temporary Chairs of
Committees to assist them in the chair.
—Documents for general use
Several different
kinds of documents are presented to the Senate on a daily, or regular basis
(See Brief Guide No. 12—Documents). The Clerk presents many documents that are
required by law to be tabled. Most of
these are regulations and other disallowable instruments (see Brief Guide No. 1—Disallowance). A list is distributed in the chamber before
tabling, and following the tabling is included in the Journals under “Documents”.
Debate on such documents is rare and may occur only by leave (see Brief Guide No. 3—Opportunities for debating documents
and reports).
Government documents,
most of which are reports from government departments or agencies, are usually
presented immediately after the sittings commence on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
(see Brief Guide No. 12—Documents). Half an hour from 6:50pm on these days is set
aside for their debate with up to an hour available for further debate on
Thursdays. A list of government
documents for a particular day is included at the end of the “Red” and appears
in the Journals under “Government
Documents”. On the first day after a
non-sitting period, the “Red” also lists any government documents that were
presented while the Senate was not sitting.
Need assistance?
For assistance with any of the matters
covered by this guide, government senators or their staff should contact the
Clerk Assistant (Table), on extension 3020; and non-government senators or
their staff should contact the Clerk Assistant (Procedure), on extension 3380.
February 2005
This publication is available electronically at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/pubs/guides/index.htm
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