The Clerk’s Office, Table Office and Chamber Research Office work together to support the day-to-day operations of the Chamber and Federation Chamber, with other areas contributing as necessary.

During the reporting period the offices continued to:

·     advise the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives

·     advise on the programming of House business and provide procedural support

·     process and draft bills

·     prepare and publish the record of proceedings of the House

·     process, provide access to and manage the custody of the documents and records of the House

·    undertake procedural and parliamentary research

·    produce information and publications on House practice and procedure

·    aintain procedural and statistical records on the work of the House

·    provide secretariat support to several domestic committees.

The focus of these customary functions changed to some extent during the year. On 15 April 2016 the Governor-General prorogued the parliament, and on 18 April the second session of parliament commenced. The opening of the second session—the first since 1977, during the Thirtieth Parliament—was a significant event that required consultation and collaboration with a range of stakeholders. Supporting and providing advice on the second session also demanded considerable effort by the Chamber support offices—no staff member had had experience of preparing for and implementing the various procedural measures or of making the necessary adjustments to systems. While departmental records of the previous occurrences were available, our systems, particularly ICT, had since changed considerably, so adaptations were necessary. The systems were adapted and operated successfully. The unusual and additional nature of this work, often conducted in collaboration with other agencies, was acknowledged by members.

In 2015–16, the budget allocation for this activity was $2.948 million and expenditure was $3.360 million. Results against the performance criteria for the activity are summarised in Appendix 1. Staff levels, by location, are shown in Appendix 2.

An election year

The House was dissolved on 9 May 2016, ending the Forty-fourth Parliament. The dissolution of the House triggers a range of administrative actions, including finalisation of House records and preparation for the opening of the new parliament.

Performance summary

The focus of this program activity is on supporting the sittings of the House of Representatives Chamber and meetings of the Federation Chamber. Performance is usually measured in two ways: qualitatively, based on the annual survey of members; and quantitatively, based on information relating to the sittings of the House, meetings of the Federation Chamber and business conducted in the Chamber and Federation Chamber.

The annual survey of members was not completed because the House was dissolved earlier than expected. Anecdotal evidence suggests a continuing high level of satisfaction with the department’s support of the Chamber and Federation Chamber. The valedictory speeches of a number of members who were not contesting the election indicated a strong regard for the advice and services we provide to assist members in their duties in the Chamber and Federation Chamber. This was consistent with comments made during interviews with retiring members conducted just prior to the election.

Statistics on the sittings of the House and meetings of the Federation Chamber for 2015–16 and the two preceding years are shown in Table 1.

There were 60 sitting days in 2015–16, a decrease of 17 days (22 per cent) on 2014–15. There was also a corresponding reduction in the number of sitting hours. In 2015–16 the House sat for 134 fewer hours than in the previous year (18.5 per cent less time), and the Federation Chamber met for 76 fewer hours than in the previous year (36.5 per cent less time). However, legislative activity continued at a high rate during the period relative to the decrease in sitting hours: 162 bills were introduced (compared to 203 in 2014–15) and 118 bills were passed by both Houses and assented to (compared to 168 in 2014–15).

Detailed information on the business of the House and the Federation Chamber is in Appendix 3 and in the department’s publication Work of the Session (available on the Parliament of Australia website).

Table 1: Performance summary, Chamber and Federation Chamber, 2010–11 to 2014–15

a Election year (refers to calendar year).
b Excludes suspensions; rounded to the nearest hour.
c Includes bills that passed both Houses in the financial year but were assented to in the following financial year.

Advice on practice and procedure

During proceedings, the Clerk, Deputy Clerk and other staff members provided immediate support and advice on the practice and procedure of the House to the Speaker, ministers, shadow ministers, members and others. They also provided detailed written advice on subjects such as the application of the standing orders and the practice of the House; the content of questions without notice; procedures for private members’ business; delegated legislation and the disallowance process; the requirements of the Constitution and standing orders with respect to financial legislation; privilege matters; and requirements of the House for the registration of members’ interests.

An unusual aspect of the advice and support was the request from a range of clients for information on the constitutional and procedural aspects of prorogation, a second session and a double dissolution election (which had last occurred in 1987). Again, while we were able to call on our records and analysis of previous such events, we needed to respond to current circumstances. The Clerk, Deputy Clerk and other staff members fully met the professional challenges that arose, including the heightened requirements for accurate and timely responses to requests.

Programming and coordination of business

During the year, we continued to provide advice and services to facilitate sittings of the House and meetings of the Federation Chamber by:

·    offering programming and procedural advice to ministers, shadow ministers, party whips, other members, their staff and 
     others

·    preparing and publishing, each sitting day:

              ·    the Notice Paper—a document listing all unresolved business before the House in the proposed order of 
                   consideration

              ·    the Daily Program (also known as ‘the Blue’)—an informal agenda for the day

              ·    procedural scripts for all items of business for use in the Chamber and Federation Chamber

·    providing staff from the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office to:

             ·    support sittings of the House and meetings of the Federation Chamber

             ·    oversee ceremonial and security arrangements

             ·    ensure the availability of chamber papers

·    processing members’ questions in writing to ministers, which involved:

             ·    editing them for compliance with the standing orders

             ·    publishing them in the Notice Paper for the next sitting day

             ·    managing answers to questions

·    providing a captioning service for the televised and webcast proceedings of the Chamber and Federation Chamber

·    publishing This Week in the House, a weekly online forecast of expected business for the House; and its counterpart,
     Last Week in the House.

Table 2 provides details of the number of questions in writing to ministers that were processed by the House in the five years from 2011–12 to 2015–16.

a Election year (refers to calendar year).
b Excludes questions withdrawn.
c The responsibility for responding to questions in writing rests with the individual ministers to whom the questions are put.

All sittings required the coordination of people, documents and actions, and the programming of the following categories of business:

·    government business (for example, government legislation)

·    private members’ business (motions and bills proposed by private members)

·    House business (matters potentially involving all members—for example, question time, debate on committee reports
     and matters of privilege).

A longitudinal view of the amount of time the House (Chamber and Federation Chamber inclusive) devoted to each of these three types of business is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Government and private members’ business and business of the House (Chamber and Federation Chamber), 2012 to 2016 [Text-only description]

Note: Private members’ business includes consideration of private members’ motions and bills and other opportunities for private members, such as adjournment debates and discussion of matters of public importance.

Processing and drafting of bills

Legislation

Support for the legislative process in 2015–16 included our traditional responsibilities of:

·   receiving bills from the Office of Parliamentary Counsel and keeping them in custody under embargo before their
    introduction in the House

·   providing bills to ministers for introduction, and to all members in the Chamber after introduction

·   uploading bills, explanatory memorandums and proposed amendments to the Parliament of Australia website, and
    providing an over-the-counter service for access to hard copies of bills and associated material

·   processing all bills and amendments to bills:

               ·   initiated in the House—from introduction to assent

               ·   initiated in the Senate—from introduction in the House until passage by the House

·   providing a legislative drafting service for private members

·   preparing and delivering messages to the Senate—173 messages relating to the passage of bills (209 in 2014–15) and
    18 other messages (21 in 2014–15)

·   preparing and issuing a Daily Bills List each sitting. The list provides cumulative information on the status of all bills before 
    the parliament, or assented to in the current calendar year.

Chamber staff of both Houses continued to work with the developer of the bills system to maintain optimal levels of technical support. The Bills System Advisory Group continued its role of advising the Bills System Advisory Board on system enhancements and satisfying business requirements.

Queries on the bills and legislation collection on the website totalled 1.5 million during the year, representing 15.1 per cent of the 9.7 million queries on the website made through ParlInfo Search.

During the year, 162 bills were introduced (203 in 2014–15), a decrease of 20.2 per cent on the previous year. Of these, 156 were initiated in the House of Representatives and six were received from the Senate. A total of 118 bills passed both Houses (168 in 2014–15), of which 113 were initiated in the House of Representatives (158 in 2014–15) and five in the Senate (10 in 2014–15). Table 3 shows the number of bills introduced and assented to in the five years from 2011–12 to 2015–16.

In 2015–16, the House passed 136 bills (185 in 2014–15), an average of 2.3 bills for each sitting, compared with 2.4 bills on average in the previous year.

The House amended eight (5.9 per cent) of the bills it passed compared to 17 (9.2 per cent) in 2014–15. The Table Office incorporated the amendments into the text of the bills and arranged for their reprinting (as third-reading prints) before transmittal to the Senate. The House agreed to Senate amendments, made amendments requested by the Senate, or did both, in relation to 20 House bills (23 in 2014–15). After further processing by the Table Office, the bills were presented to the Governor-General for assent. The House made amendments to two bills in place of Senate amendments that were not agreed to. (One of those bills is included in the total, above, of House bills with Senate amendments agreed to by the House.)

The number of amendments moved during consideration in detail fell sharply, from 303 in 2014–15 to 119 in 2015–16. Of these, 62 were passed, of which two were opposition amendments. The House did not amend any bills initiated in the Senate in 2015–16 or in the previous year.

The Table Office prepared eight third-reading prints (17 in 2014–15) and 114 assent prints (158 in 2014–15). All documents accurately reflected the decisions of both Houses. 

Table 3: Number of bills introduced in the House, and number of bills assented to, 2011–12
to 2015–16

a Election year (refers to calendar year).
b Includes bills that passed both Houses in the financial year but were assented to in the following financial year.

Legislative drafting

The department drafts bills, amendments and second-reading (in-principle) amendments for private members, and ensures that these documents comply with the Constitution and the standing orders. The department also prepares bills and amendments in the correct form and arranges copies for circulation.

In 2015–16, 21 private members’ bills were introduced (including one private Senator’s bill). Of the 119 amendments moved during consideration in detail, 59 were private members’ amendments, two of which were agreed to. Table 4 provides chamber statistics for private members’ legislation for the last five financial years. The table does not reflect all of the department’s work in this area, as some drafted material is not introduced into the House.

Since 2010, the department has had an arrangement with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel for one of its senior drafters to be seconded to the department. This arrangement continues to be mutually beneficial.

Table 4 Private members’ bills introduced and amendments moved (Chamber and Federation Chamber), 2011–12
to 2015–16

a Election year (refers to calendar year).
b Includes government amendments.

Record of proceedings and House documents

Votes and Proceedings

The Votes and Proceedings continued to provide an accurate, comprehensive and concise record of proceedings. The draft document for each sitting is published on the Parliament of Australia website, usually within an hour of the adjournment of the House.

The Votes and Proceedings is prepared from the Votes Officer’s Minutes (or Live Minutes), an electronic draft record of the proceedings of the Chamber and the Federation Chamber. The Votes Officer’s Minutes are more detailed than the Votes and Proceedings and are compiled progressively throughout a sitting. The Votes Officer’s Minutes enable anyone with access to the internet to follow events in the Chamber and Federation Chamber as they occur. Internal and external clients continued to rely on this service and provided positive feedback. In May we marked the 10th anniversary of the publication of the Votes Officer’s Minutes on the internet, although the Table Office had made this available to Parliament House users three years before that time.

Table Offices Production System

The project to develop the Table Offices Production System (TOPS) was finalised in September 2015. Since then, further development has allowed information held on the system to be available to ParlWork, an application under development by the Department of Parliamentary Services, with the assistance of this department and the Department of the Senate (with both House departments providing the content). ParlWork is intended for use on hand-held devices and is scheduled for public release for the start of the Forty-fifth Parliament. It displays repurposed parliamentary information, including the Live Minutes, Daily Program and Notice Paper provided by the Table Office (alongside the Senate’s equivalent documents, provided by the Senate Table Office). Questions in writing for the Forty-fifth Parliament will become available on ParlWork, together with any answers provided.

The Table Office made significant effort to prepare the requirements for ParlWork and test both TOPS and the new application itself—in collaboration with colleagues from the departments of Parliamentary Services and the Senate. Some additional benefits for TOPS users resulted from this development work. Another round of enhancement work for TOPS is being scoped and is expected to be delivered for testing in early 2017.

Documents

During the year, we processed all documents presented to the House and recorded their details in the Votes and Proceedings and the Index to Papers Presented to Parliament. We made copies available on request to members and their staff and others, principally in Parliament House. The original documents were added to the records of the House, which we continued to maintain. We also continued to review our requirement for tabling stock in light of the online availability of documents and the declining demand for hard copies.

In 2015–16, documents presented to the House numbered 3,023, a small decrease on 3,308 in the previous year.

Each sitting day the Table Office prepares and issues a Disallowable Instruments List in both electronic and hard-copy form. The list provides details of all instruments presented to the House that are subject to disallowance, by the number of sitting days remaining in which a notice of disallowance can be lodged.

Parliamentary Papers Series

The Parliamentary Papers Series consists of documents of a substantial nature presented to the parliament since 1901. An electronic repository for the series, instituted in 2013, enables centralised electronic access to the documents through the ParlInfo Tabled Papers Register. The documents section of TOPS has helped to streamline the process of uploading parliamentary papers to the repository.

Printed copies of the papers are distributed to 27 external recipients. During the reporting period, the department took over responsibility for administering the distribution of the printed copies from CanPrint. The Presiding Officers advised that 2016 will be the final year the printed series is distributed to recipients.

The department is responsible for the custody and preservation of, and provision of access to, the official records of the House, including Acts, bills, the Votes and Proceedings and all documents presented to the House dating from 1901. The records are stored in an archive in the basement of Parliament House. We continue to monitor the suitability of the archive environment.

Petitions

The House petitioning process continues to enable Australians to raise issues with the House that are of interest to them. Table 5 shows the number of petitions presented to the House, and the number of signatories, for the past five years. In 2015–16, 87 petitions were presented, compared to 101 in 2014–15. The number of signatures dropped to 118,846 from 250,369 in the previous year.

Table 5 Petitions and signatories to petitions, 2011–12 to 2015–16

a  Election year (refers to calendar year).

Research

The Chamber Research Office continued in its principal function of collecting, analysing and publishing procedural and statistical information on the work of the House and its committees.

In 2015–16, the office provided:

·    advice, and assistance with advice, to the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and members on the application of the standing orders 
     and House practice

·    secretariat services to the Standing Committee on Procedure

·    advice about and publications on House statistics, practice and procedure

·    information to the public, the media and other parliaments on the operations of the House.

The services of the office continued to be in high demand, reflecting sustained high levels of interest in the procedures and operations of the House.

Publications

The Chamber Research Office continued to produce regular publications outlining significant procedural events and popular statistics, catering to the wide variety of readers interested in the work of the House by varying the complexity and style of its publications. After each sitting fortnight the office published the Procedural Digest, an online, subject-based record of proceedings; the Procedural Extracts, a technical document; and the Statistical Digest, a statistical record of the work of the House. Work of the Session, a comprehensive six-monthly overview of the business of the House and committees, was published in August 2015 and, due to the prorogation of the first session of the parliament, in April 2016. Due to the dissolution of both Houses, another edition was published in May 2016 for the sittings of the second session of the parliament. Three infosheets in the series of 22 infosheets on the work of the House were updated in August 2015, and May and February 2016.

Together, these publications provide a current and concise record of the work of the House and the more significant aspects of that work. The department’s publications, including the Infosheet series, are listed in Appendix 7.

The Chamber Research Office maintains, publishes and distributes the standing orders of the House. On 13 October 2015 and 2 February 2016, amendments to the standing orders were made by the House and published as addenda to the standing orders printed as at 26 March 2015.

Collaboration with the Department of the Senate

The Chamber Research Office continued its longstanding collaboration with colleagues in the Department of the Senate, including through participation in orientation seminars for the Australian National Internship Program and the Australian Defence Force parliamentary exchange program. Collaboration on a virtual tour of the House and the Senate came to fruition in September 2015, when the tour became available on the parliament’s website.

Collaboration with other parliaments

Staff members are frequently asked to share their experiences and knowledge with counterparts from other parliaments. The office continued to participate, with colleagues and members from other parliaments, in study programs, meetings during delegation visits and capacity-building work. Colleagues from other parliaments continued to be interested in the longstanding practices of the office in recording, analysing and publishing information on the procedural work of the House.

Parliamentary committees

The department continued to provide effective secretariat and advisory support to a number of House committees and to one joint committee dealing with the powers and procedures of the House (see Table 6).

In 2015–16, these committees held 51 meetings and produced 32 reports. Details of meetings and reports are set out in Appendixes 4 and 5.

Table 6 Committees supported by the Chamber and Federation Chamber activity, 2015–16

Selection Committee

Table Office staff supported the Selection Committee in fulfilling three important roles:

·    selecting and programming private members’ business and committee and delegation business

·    setting speaking times for second-reading debates (the committee has not yet exercised this role)

·    considering all bills introduced and determining whether to refer bills directly to House or joint committees for inquiry.

The committee has 11 members: the Speaker (as chair), the chief whips of the three largest parties, four government members and three non-government members. The committee met 13 times during the reporting period.

Standing Committee on Appropriations and Administration

The Standing Committee on Appropriations and Administration considers, among other things, estimates of the funding required for the operation of the department each year. When conferring with its counterpart Senate committee—the Senate Standing Committee on Appropriations and Staffing—the House committee may consider estimates of the funding required for the operation of the Department of Parliamentary Services each year.

The committee has nine members: the Speaker (as chair), four government members and four non-government members. It is supported by the Clerk, the Serjeant-at-Arms and other officers of the department. During the year the committee met three times and presented two reports.

Standing Committee on Petitions

The Standing Committee of Privileges and Members’ Interests met 13 times during the reporting period and presented two reports to the House. One of the reports was presented under the resolution agreed to by the House to allow individual citizens to have published in Hansard a response to an adverse reference made to them in the House.

The other report, Report into whether the former Member for Dobell, Mr Craig Thomson, in a statement to the House on 21 May 2012 deliberately misled the House, followed an extensive process of inquiry by the committee. The task for the committee was to assess whether the findings against Mr Thomson by the Victorian criminal courts could be reconciled with his lengthy and deliberate address in the House. The committee’s view is that they could not be reconciled and that Mr Thomson intended to mislead the House, which amounted to a contempt of the House. The committee recommended that the House find Mr Thomson guilty of a contempt of the House and reprimand him for his conduct. The House passed a resolution to this effect on 4 May 2016.

The committee presented two sets of alterations of members’ interests during the period and in February 2016 reported on its operations in connection with the registration and declaration of members’ interests in 2015.

Standing Committee of Privileges and Members’ Interests

The Standing Committee on Procedure usually meets once each sitting week. The committee was productive in 2015–16, presenting four reports. The committee demonstrated its responsiveness to concerns raised by the House, presenting reports into provisions for a more family-friendly Chamber and electronic voting in the Chamber. The committee also completed a major inquiry into the consideration in detail of the main appropriation bill, along with its regular inquiry into the maintenance of House standing orders. As always, these inquiries provided members and the public with a means of raising procedural issues of concern and interest. The reports provide a useful snapshot of technical issues being faced by the House and members, as well as offering options to the House for improvement and reform.

Standing Committee on Procedure

The Standing Committee on Procedure usually meets once each sitting week to carry out its responsibilities: ‘to inquire into and report on the practices and procedures of the House and its committees’. In June 2015, the committee reported on its inquiry into the role and operations of the Federation Chamber and adopted an inquiry into the consideration in detail of the main appropriation bill. It continues with its regular inquiry into the maintenance of the Standing and Sessional Orders.

Standing Committee on Publications

The House Publications Committee held two meetings in 2015–16 and met with the Senate Publications Committee on eight other occasions. The committee presented
10 reports containing recommendations on which documents presented to parliament should be included in the Parliamentary Papers Series. All recommended documents were agreed for inclusion.

Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings

The Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1946 requires ABC radio and, in some circumstances, ABC television to broadcast the proceedings of parliament. It is the statutory role of the Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings to advise parliament on general principles for the allocation of radio broadcasting time between the House and the Senate chambers and to determine a more detailed schedule of broadcasting allocations. The committee is supported by the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office.

Under the Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act, the committee has nine members, including the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. By tradition, the Speaker is chair and the President is vice-chair. The committee meets when required and did not meeting during the reporting period.

Procedural training

The department continued to use a range of measures to support its staff to develop the specialised knowledge and skills necessary to the application of parliamentary law, practice and procedure. Measures included:

·   sitting debriefs following each sitting week or fortnight, focusing on matters of procedural interest

·   regular parliamentary briefings and training provided by senior departmental staff

·   specialist briefings for training and coaching departmental staff who undertake duty as Clerks and Deputy Clerks in the
    Chamber and Federation Chamber

·   shadowing opportunities that enable staff to learn specialist skills such as the preparation of House procedures, the
    Notice Paper and the Votes and Proceedings. With sufficient experience gained by trainee staff, the use of shadowing
    allows chamber support staff to finish work earlier on some sitting nights and provides a back-up in the event of staffing
    absences or turnover

·   opportunities for participation in parliamentary conferences, including the annual Australia and New Zealand Association
    of Clerks-at-the-Table (ANZACATT) professional development seminar

·   participation in the Graduate Certificate in Parliamentary Law and Practice, currently taught by the University of Tasmania
    under the auspices of ANZACATT.

Improving performance

Procedural training and development continued to be a priority during the year. The complexities that needed to be addressed in the circumstances of prorogation, a second session and a double dissolution election provided us with a rich period of learning and development that we will capitalise on.

Outlook

Further improvements were made to TOPS and associated workflows and some efficiencies have been realised, while implementation of some enhancements were delayed. The introduction of ParlWork had its advantages and disadvantages in regard to workflows and optimising the potential of TOPS.

The year saw a return to the long-term pattern of chamber support activity, although the time available for meetings of the Federation Chamber continued to be underused.

Our focus in 2016–17 will continue to be on providing high-quality services to meet the needs of the Speaker, members and other clients. Given the number of members who decided not to contest the election, there will be a large number of new members in the Forty-fifth Parliament. The opening of the new parliament and assistance in the orientation of new members will be a feature of the first half of the coming year. The election period provides an opportunity to review and refresh our procedural publications to ensure their continuing relevance to the needs of members as well as the wider community.

Previous Page l Contents l Next Page