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Chapter 16 - Committees
Instructions to committees
Committees being bodies appointed by the Senate for its purposes, they
may be given instructions by the Senate.
Instructions to committees are covered in Chapter 22 of the standing
orders and apply both to committees of the whole and other committees. The
application of these standing orders to committees of the whole dealing with
bills is covered in Chapter 12, Legislation, under Instructions to committee of
the whole.
The purpose of an instruction to a committee is to empower it to
undertake an action it would not otherwise have power to undertake. As indicated in Chapter 12, an
instruction may also require a committee to do something which is within its
power and which the Senate requires to be done, for example, in the cases of
standing and select committees, to hear particular witnesses (see below). An instruction also binds a committee to
undertake the action determined by the Senate. It may have application, for
example, where the non-government majority of the Senate seeks to direct a
committee with a government party majority. An instruction may also be used to
extend or restrict the order of reference to a committee but, in practice, this
is invariably achieved by an ordinary resolution altering the terms of
reference.
Instructions to committees, other than committee of the whole, have
been invoked only rarely. In June 1991 a motion to refer matters relating to
the administration of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to a
committee was the subject of some disputation. The reference was originally
intended to be to the Foreign Affairs,
Defence and Trade Committee but was changed to the Finance and Public
Administration Committee on the basis that the matters related to general
questions of public administration. The chair of the Finance and Public
Administration Committee moved an amendment to alter the motion to an
instruction to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee to consider the
particular matters listed in the proposed reference as part of its scrutiny of
the department’s annual report, considered by the committee under a standing
reference of all annual reports to the relevant committee (19/6/1991, J.1229).
The amendment was defeated and the Finance and Public Administration Committee
subsequently presented a significant and substantial report on the management
and operations of the department. Normally, an instruction to a committee
requires notice (SO 151). In this case,
although the amendment would have had the effect of instructing the committee,
it was moved not as an instruction per se but as an amendment to a motion and
therefore did not require notice.
An instruction was given to the Procedure
Committee in 1993 in relation to a reference on the hours of sitting and routine
of business. Although the committee has no formal evidence gathering powers it
was instructed by the Senate to invite submissions from all parties in the
Senate and independent senators (18/8/1993, J.357).
Committees may be directed by the Senate to hear evidence on particular
matters or from particular witnesses (7/2/1995,
J.2895-7; 6/6/1995, J.3364-5; 4/11/1996, J.836; 22/10/1997, J.2673; 21/10/1999,
J.1966; 10/4/2000, J.2582-3; 2585; 28/6/2000, J.2958; 28/11/2000, J.3594-5;
19/6/2001, J.4322;
12/3/2002, J.154-6; 18/9/2002, J.760; 25/11/2003, J.2709-10; 16/6/2004, J.3473). For a direction to invite the Prime Minister
and another minister to give evidence, see 9/3/1995, J.3063-4 (See Supplement).
The legislative and general purpose standing committees to which the
Telstra (Dilution of Public Ownership) Bill 1996 and the Workplace Relations
Bill 1996 were referred were instructed to hold public hearings in each state
and territory capital city (21/5/1996, J.173-6; 23/5/1996, J.214-5, 217-8).
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