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Annual Report 2001–02 You are currently viewing: Annual
report > Performance Review > Output
Group 1 > Output 1.2 Output Group 1: Chamber and Main Committee1.2 Legislation and research services
LegislationA major function of the department is to support the legislative role of the House. During the year, a total of 214 bills were introduced (183 in 200001), of which 201 bills were initiated in the House of Representatives and 13 were received from the Senate. Of the bills introduced, 10 were private members bills, for which the department provided drafting assistance. Details are provided in Table 18 in Appendix 2. The increased number of bills introduced during the year reflected, amongst other things, the reintroduction in the Fortieth Parliament of bills which had lapsed at the dissolution of the Thirty-ninth Parliament. The House amended 34 bills requiring the amendments to be incorporated and reprinted prior to their transmittal to the Senate. In addition, 32 bills were amended by the Senate and agreed to by the House, requiring further processing by the Table Office before being presented to the Governor-General for assent. In total, 143 bills were prepared, printed and checked for accuracy prior to assent compared with 159 in 200001. The reduction reflected the smaller numbers of sitting days during the year resulting from the election period. The department provided drafting assistance for the second reading (in principle) amendments and detailed amendments to bills moved by private members during the year (see Appendix 2). Very high levels of accuracy were maintained during all stages of processing legislation and all deadlines were achieved. No errors arising from the departments processing of bills were identified during the year. Specialised software used to edit bills was maintained and updated during the period in order to keep abreast of Office of Parliamentary Counsel system changes.
Document managementIn 200102 the department trialled several software products used for comparing electronic documents to assess whether they could be used to supplement and streamline the manual checking processes applied in processing legislation. The results of the trials will become available to senior management early in financial year 200203. The department continued to implement the recommendations of the 2000 internal review of document management and archiving practices. House records were re-arranged, non-standard-sized items were re-housed in archival quality containers, and the culling of material commenced. House original documents, parliamentary papers and petitions will continue to be re-boxed as resources allow. The department will continue to implement the recommendations of the review over a number of years.
Standing orders reviewThe departments review of the standing orders commenced in the Thirty-ninth Parliament in response to a recommendation made by the Procedure Committee in October 1999 continued, with extensive workshopping of modernised and revised draft standing orders by Chamber staff. The draft was referred to the Procedure Committee in June 2002 for its consideration.
Chamber Research OfficeThe Chamber Research Office managed the departmental procedural library, supported members and senior staff by means of research services and procedural advice and provided an extensive statistical service. The office also coordinated two reviews relating to the output group to address undertakings made in the 200002 corporate plan. The first concerned knowledge sharing practices in the output group and the second related to developing procedural expertise to meet future requirements. The resulting recommendations were adopted and reflected in the departments corporate plan for 200205. You are currently viewing: Annual
report > Performance Review > Output
Group 1 > Output 1.2
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