Chapter 16 - Committees
Evolution of the committee system
The Senate’s first standing orders provided for the establishment of
both standing and select committees. The standing or domestic committees were
concerned with the Senate’s own affairs and support services and included a
Standing Orders Committee, Library Committee, House Committee, Printing
Committee and Elections and Qualifications Committee. The first committee
reports in 1901 were made by the Elections and Qualifications Committee and the
Standing Orders Committee. Select committees were used to inquire into
particular matters the Senate considered worthy of inquiry. Such committees
were given powers to summon witnesses and require the production of documents,
and procedures for examining witnesses were set out in the standing orders. The
first select committee report presented to the Senate examined steamship
communication between Tasmania and the mainland. Other select committees were
appointed as required.
In 1932, the
Regulations and Ordinances Committee was established following a report of the
select committee appointed in 1929 to consider, report and make recommendations
upon the advisability or otherwise of establishing standing committees of the
Senate upon:
-
statutory rules and ordinances
-
international relations
-
finance
-
private members bills
and such other subjects as were deemed advisable (PP S1/1929-31).
The select committee was of the view that a standing committee system,
to be successful and bearing in mind the small number of senators available
(then 36), would need to grow from modest beginnings (SD, 1/5/1930,
p. 1311). Although the select committee originally recommended the
establishment of regulations and ordinances and external affairs committees,
and the modification of the standing orders to facilitate the reference of
bills to committees, the matter was recommitted and the committee’s second
report (PP S2/1929-31) recommended that only a regulations and ordinances
committee be established. There had been government fears that an external
affairs committee might use its powers to obtain access to sensitive documents
on Australia’s external affairs
and the proposal for a committee in this area was not pursued at that time. The
significant volume of delegated legislation made without parliamentary scrutiny
was of concern to all sides of politics, however, and the establishment of a
regulations and ordinances committee was therefore seen as a priority. In 1982
that committee was joined by the second of the standing legislative scrutiny
committees, the Scrutiny of Bills
Committee, charged with ensuring that all bills and Acts observed similar
fundamental principles as those applying to delegated legislation.
The modern committee system dates from 1970, when the Senate agreed to
the appointment of seven legislative and general purpose standing committees,
standing ready to inquire into any matters referred by the Senate in a range of
subject areas, and five estimates committees to examine the annual estimates of
departments in a more orderly and effective manner.
With this development, the evolution of the main types of committees on
which senators have served was complete.
A major refinement
occurred with the adoption of resolutions by the Senate on 5 December 1989 providing for the
systematic referral of bills to legislative and general purpose standing
committees. These orders came into effect in the latter half of 1990 and
facilitated the realisation of a long-held ideal, that Senate committees should
have a greater role in the consideration of legislation.
In 1994, as a result of a Procedure Committee
report on the committee system (First Report of 1994, PP 146/1994), the
estimates and legislative and general purpose committees were amalgamated. A
scheme of paired committees, incorporating the functions of estimates and
legislative and general purpose standing committees in each subject area, a references committee
and a legislation committee, was adopted. The chairs of other
committees were reorganised so that the distribution of chairs approximated the
representation of parties in the Senate. In 2006 the pairs of committees in each subject area
were amalgamated, returning to pre-1994 arrangement for the legislative and
general purpose standing committees.
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