Chapter 12 - Legislation
Instructions to committee of the whole
A motion may also be moved after the second reading for an
instruction to the committee of the whole which is to consider the bill. Such a
motion may be moved only if notice has been given (SO 115(2)). A notice for an instruction is a contingent notice, contingent on the bill
being read a second time.
An instruction to the committee of the
whole on the bill directs the committee as to how it is to consider the bill
and as to any particular treatment it is to give the bill. A committee is bound
by the instructions given to it by the Senate.
An instruction
to a committee of the whole may direct the committee to divide a bill into two or more bills or to
consolidate several bills into one (SO 150(1)), or require the committee on a
bill to amend an existing statute to consider amendments which are not relevant
to the subject matter of the bill but which are relevant to the subject matter
of the statute it is proposed to amend (SO 150(2)).
These specific
kinds of instructions to the committee of the whole are prescribed in the
standing orders because, without such instructions, the committee of the whole
would not have power to undertake the actions referred to in the instructions.
Under the standing orders relating to consideration of bills in committee of
the whole, a committee does not have power to divide or consolidate bills or to
consider amendments which are not relevant to the subject matter of a bill. The
latter restriction is not, however, very significant, because it is rare that
an amendment is relevant to the subject matter of a statute proposed to be
amended by a bill but irrelevant to the subject matter of the bill.
For the division
and consolidation of bills, see below.
There are
precedents for instructions to committees of the whole in relation to
amendments of the kind referred to in the standing orders; these instances
occurred in earlier times when a more restrictive view was taken of relevance
(see ASP, 6th ed., pp 469-70, and under Committee of the whole:
amendments, below).
These prescribed
types of instructions, however, do not exhaust the possible instructions which
may be given to a committee of the whole. A committee may, for example, be
instructed to consider or make particular amendments.
Instructions to
a committee of the whole are relatively rare, because, apart from the types of
instructions referred to in standing order 150, an instruction may not empower a
committee to undertake any action in relation to a bill which it could not
otherwise undertake, and if a majority in the Senate is in favour of a
particular course of action in relation to a bill it is likely that there would
also be a majority in committee of the whole in favour of that course of
action. Standing order 149 refers to an instruction empowering
a committee to consider matters not otherwise referred to it, or extending or
restricting its order of reference. This provision has little application to a
committee of the whole on a bill, except where such a committee is instructed
to consolidate a bill with another bill not otherwise referred to it or to
consider the enacting words in a bill (see below).
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