Chapter 13 - Financial legislation
Parliamentary appropriations
The annual and additional
appropriations for the Senate department and the other parliamentary
departments are contained in bills which are separate from the appropriations
for executive departments and agencies, and entitled Appropriation
(Parliamentary Departments) Bills.
Until 1982
appropriations for the services of the two Houses of the Parliament were contained in
the appropriation bills for the services of the government, and were divided
between the bill not amendable by the Senate, containing appropriations for the
ordinary annual services of the government, and the amendable bill, containing
other appropriations. At various times during discussions in the Senate about
the concept of ordinary annual services, it was pointed out that the services
of the Houses were not ordinary annual
services of the government nor services of the government as such, and it was
therefore highly anomalous to have parliamentary appropriations contained in
the two appropriation bills in this way.
This point was
taken up in the report of the Senate Select Committee on Parliament’s
Appropriations and Staffing, which was appointed to consider issues relating to
the control by the Houses of their own appropriations and staffing, and which
reported in 1981 (report of the committee, PP 151/1981). One of the
recommendations of the committee was that there be a separate parliamentary
appropriations bill. This recommendation was adopted in 1982, and since that
time a third annual appropriation bill has been introduced, the Appropriation
(Parliamentary Departments) Bill. As this bill is not for the ordinary annual services
of the government it is amendable by the Senate.
The select committee also examined the issue of the control by the
Houses of their own appropriations, and recommended the establishment of a
standing committee with the responsibility of determining the appropriations
for the Department of the Senate for inclusion in the parliamentary
appropriations bill. This recommendation was adopted by the Senate, and the
Standing Committee on Appropriations and Staffing is now established by
standing order 19. The committee
is given the task of determining the amounts for inclusion in the parliamentary
appropriation bill for the Department of the Senate. The committee accordingly
considers draft estimates submitted to the President by the Department of the
Senate and determines the amounts which should be appropriated by the
Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill for the Department.
The select committee also suggested amendment of sections 53 and 56 of the Constitution
so that the parliamentary appropriation bill could be initiated in either House
of the Parliament and passed without a recommendation of the Governor-General.
Amendment of the Constitution being a significant and expensive step, this
suggestion has not been followed, and the Appropriation (Parliamentary
Departments) Bill is initiated in the House of Representatives and passed on a
Governor-General’s recommendation as with other appropriation bills. This
constitutional situation, in effect, gives the executive government control
over the contents of the bill as introduced.
Following the establishment of the Appropriations and Staffing
Committee, there were some difficulties caused by governments making changes to
the figures determined by the Appropriations and Staffing Committee for
inclusion in the bill. It was envisaged by the 1981 select committee that the
government, through its representation on the Appropriations and Staffing
Committee, would submit to that committee any alterations the government
considered desirable to the draft estimates. Instead, the government
occasionally adopted the practice of examining the estimates as determined by
the standing committee and making changes, albeit marginal changes, without
further consultation with the committee. This situation was considered by
Estimates Committee A in 1985, and, on the recommendation of that committee,
the Senate passed a resolution setting down procedures to be followed for the
determination of the appropriations for the Senate Department. The relevant
parts of the resolution are as follows:
(b) the estimates of
expenditure for the Senate to be included in the Appropriation (Parliamentary
Departments) Bill shall continue to be those determined by the Standing
Committee on Appropriations and Staffing;
(c) if before the introduction
of the Bill the Minister for Finance should, for any reason, wish to vary the
details of the estimates determined by the Committee the Minister should
consult with the President of the Senate with a view to obtaining the agreement
of the Committee to any variation;
(d) in the event of agreement
not being reached between the President and the Minister, then the Leader of
the Government in the Senate, as a member of the Appropriations and Staffing
Committee, be consulted;
(e) the Senate acknowledges
that in considering any request from the Minister for Finance the Committee and
the Senate would take into consideration the relevant expenditure and staffing
policies of the Government of the day; and
(f) in turn the Senate
expects the Government of the day to take into consideration the role and
responsibilities of the Senate which are not of the Executive Government and
which may at times involve conflict with the Executive Government. (2 December 1985, J.676)
Following the adoption of that resolution the Appropriations and
Staffing Committee had occasion to complain of non-observance by the government
of the procedures laid down in the resolution, and the Senate twice reaffirmed
the resolution (30/11/1988, J.1214; 29/11/1989, J.2273). In 1993 it was
reported to the Senate and to Estimates Committee F that the
Appropriations and Staffing Committee was pursuing with the government the
question of compliance with the resolution (19th report of the
Standing Committee on Appropriations and Staffing, August 1993, PP 115/1993;
Estimates Committee F, Hansard, 26/8/1993, pp F2-F5; also 20th
report of the committee, May 1994, PP 473/1994, 1993-94 annual report,
PP 473/1994, 22nd report, May 1995, PP 490/1995, annual report
1995-96, August 1996, PP 427/1996). Agreement between the committee and the
Minister for Finance on a method for calculating funding for select committees,
and changes in government budgeting methods generally, have avoided
disagreements in recent years. (See also Chapter 5, Officers of the Senate:
Parliamentary Administration, under Senate’s Appropriations and Staffing, and
Chapter 16, Committees, under Appropriations and Staffing Committee.)
The system recommended by the 1981 select committee was not followed in
respect of the determination of appropriations for other parliamentary
departments. It was envisaged that an appropriations and staffing committee
would also be established in the House of Representatives and would determine
appropriations for that House, and that the two committees would meet as a
joint committee to determine appropriations for the joint parliamentary
departments, the departments (now one department) which provide services for
both Houses. The government, however, has not permitted the establishment of
such a committee in the House of Representatives, and the appropriations for
the other parliamentary department are determined by the President and
Speaker subject to veto by the government.
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