Chapter 12 - Legislation
Division and consolidation of bills
As noted above, the standing orders make
provision for the division of a bill into two or more bills and the
consolidation of two or more bills into one bill.
Dividing a bill or consolidating two or
more bills is a form of amendment. The Senate could not, therefore, undertake
those actions in respect of bills it could not amend, but could request the House of
Representatives to do so.
The first
occasion on which the Senate divided a bill occurred on 9 June 1995, when the Human Services and Health Legislation Amendment
Bill (No. 1) 1995 was divided into two bills pursuant to an instruction to the
committee of the whole moved on notice. Amendments of an act which arguably
should not have been included in the bill were extracted and turned into a
separate bill by the addition of enacting words, titles and commencement
provisions, and the resulting two bills were then passed (J.3424-5). In
response to this action the government introduced two new bills into the House
of Representatives containing the provisions of the divided bill. It was not
explained why this course was followed rather than the simpler course of
agreeing to the division of the bill in the same way as other types of
amendment are agreed to. It appeared from this and subsequent cases that,
although the government was willing to accept indirectly and tacitly the
division of bills by the Senate, it had also accepted claims by its advisers
that division of bills was a particularly undesirable step which should be
resisted. No rational basis for such claims was advanced.
The Health
Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 4) 1999 was divided into two bills, one of
which was then held over by means of an amendment to the motion for the
adoption of the report of the committee of the whole. (30/10/2000, J.3429-30; 31/10/2000, J.3440-3) The government then introduced
a new bill, which was passed in June 2000, including some Senate amendments.
The Broadcasting
Legislation Amendment Bill 2000, a bill initiated in the Senate, was divided
into two bills on 1 March
2001 (J.3997-1), and
consideration of one of the resulting bills deferred by means of an amendment
to the motion for the adoption of the report of the committee of the whole. In
the case of a bill initiated in the Senate, the government has only the options
of accepting or rejecting the bill or bills sent to the House, or seeking by
way of amendment of that bill or bills to reverse the Senate’s action. In this
case the government accepted the Senate’s action.
The Innovation
and Education Legislation Amendment Bill 2001 was divided into three bills on 28 June 2001 (J.4538-40). In this instance the government signalled its
rejection of the Senate’s action by moving to report progress from the
committee of the whole, and the bill was not proceeded with.
The Family and Community Services Legislation Amendment (Australians
Working Together and other 2001 Budget Measures) Bill 2002 was divided into two
bills on 15 November 2002. The government refused to consider the division of
the bill in the House of Representatives following a statement by the Speaker
that the division of the bill was undesirable, apparently reflecting the
government’s advisers’ view referred to above, but again without any
explanation of the basis of this claim. The Senate then passed a resolution to
the effect that division of a bill was not different in principle from any
other form of amendment, and should be considered as such. The Senate did not
insist on its division of the bill, but proceeded with it undivided, and made
and insisted on further amendments to it (15/11/2002, J.1092-9; 12/12/2002, J.1363-81,
1413-33).
An attempt to
divide non-amendable bills by request was made in 1993: 20/10/1993, J.646-8. As
a request can be made at any stage, a request to divide a bill does not require
an instruction to the committee of the whole. Requests to divide non-amendable
bills, the Customs Tariff Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2001 and the Excise Tariff
Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2001 were circulated in April 2001, but were not
proceeded with when the government agreed to amend the bills.
There had been
no prior precedents for instructions to divide or consolidate bills, although
motions for instructions to divide bills had been moved (8/9/1981, J.474;
23/9/1981, J.530; 28/10/1981, J.606; 27/10/1982, J.1174; 4/12/1991, J.1835-7;
9/12/1994, J.2787; 18/10/1996, J.756-7; for a discussion of the power of the
Senate to divide certain tax bills, see ASP, 6th ed.,
pp 461-7).
The division of
bills has been relatively common in state Legislative Councils.
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