| Outputs |
Legislative drafting and procedural support to non-executive senators.
Secretariat support for legislative scrutiny committees.
Procedural research services.
Parliamentary information for public servants and the community.
Support and funding for inter-parliamentary relations. |
Procedural advice and support is sound and timely, enabling the instructing senator to fulfil their role. |
Senators and their staff continued to acknowledge the accuracy and value of procedural advice though feedback. |
Legislative amendments and private senators’ bills are legally sound and meet the requirements of instructing senators. |
Legislative amendments and bills were accurate, and were prepared within required timeframes and to the satisfaction of senators. |
Secretariat support to the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation Committee, the Scrutiny of Bills Committee and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights is accurate, of a high standard and timely. |
Advice and documents prepared for the legislative scrutiny committees were accurate, of a high standard and provided within the timeframes set by the Senate and the committees, and to the satisfaction of the committees. |
Parliamentary research information is accurate, timely and comprehensive.
Seminars, lectures and other parliamentary information projects are provided to increase the awareness of the work and role of the Parliament.
Inter-parliamentary functions are supported to the satisfaction of participants. |
Accurate and comprehensive parliamentary research was provided within required timeframes.
Seminars and lectures were held in accordance with the programmed schedule (with some interruption due to the pandemic), and public information projects were delivered in accordance with the required timeframes. Training was provided to the satisfaction of participants, demonstrated by positive feedback obtained through evaluation processes.
Inter-parliamentary functions were carried out to the satisfaction of participants. |
Overview
The Procedure Office is led by the Clerk Assistant (Procedure) and has three functional areas, as shown in figure 9.
| Executive, legislative drafting and procedural advice |
Procedural advice, support and training.
Drafting of legislative amendments and private senators’ bills. |
Jane Thomson, Director, Procedure and Research
Legislative drafting and procedural advice
Publications, seminars, public lectures and exhibitions
Parliamentary liaison and research on parliamentary matters |
Anita Coles, Secretary, Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights
Glenn Ryall, Secretary, Scrutiny of Bills Committee and Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation Committee
Secretariat, advisory and administrative support to the committees |
The office provides a range of advisory, research and public information services to support the work of senators and the Senate, including legislative drafting services and support for the Parliament’s legislative scrutiny committees.
The demand for procedural and legislative advice and support is driven by the requirements of senators and the Senate. The work of the secretariats of the legislative scrutiny committees is similarly driven by the volume of legislation coming before the Senate and additional inquiries undertaken by the committees.
The Procedure Office monitors levels of satisfaction with its performance through formal and informal channels such as seminar evaluation forms, surveys and direct feedback from senators and their staff, and members of the public.
The full-time equivalent staffing level for the Procedure Office in 2020–21 was 25.4 (20.5 in 2019–20). The cost of providing the services of the Procedure Office in 2020–21 was $4.0m ($4.0m in 2019–20).
Procedural support
In 2020–21, the office assisted non-executive senators and their staff by providing advice relating to the role and work of the Senate and its committees. As usual, there was strong demand for such advice, particularly during sitting periods. Advice was provided on many procedural issues, including the constitutional powers of the Senate, the legislative process, the process for disallowance of delegated legislation, reference of matters to committees, orders for production of documents and opportunities for debate. The office also provided research support to the Clerk and Deputy Clerk and others on procedural matters.
Staff ensured the accuracy of advice by researching appropriate precedents and consulting other departmental officers, particularly the Clerk Assistant (Procedure), the Clerk and the Deputy Clerk. Advice was non-partisan, consistent, and provided to senators and their staff in a timely fashion often within very short time frames.
In 2020–21, the office prepared an average of 14 procedural scripts per sitting day for use by senators in the chamber with a total of 677 scripts for the year. This was similar to the previous year’s average of 17. These scripts assist senators to pursue matters of concern to them through, for example, orders for the production of documents, committee references and the introduction of bills.
The office also checked material, particularly draft motions, for procedural accuracy on request from senators and their staff. The advice provided was accurate and provided in time to enable senators to use this material in the Senate and elsewhere.
Legislative drafting
In 2020–21, the office provided legislative support to senators by drafting amendments and private senators’ bills, primarily for non-government senators.
The office prepared and circulated 59 second reading amendments (an increase on the previous year, when 52 such amendments were circulated). The office also drafted and circulated 245 sets of committee of the whole amendments, comprising 740 individual amendments (compared to 608 amendments circulated on 170 sheets in the previous year). While the preparation of second reading amendments is usually straightforward, committee of the whole amendments, which propose amendments to bills, can range from simple to quite complex and resource intensive.
A further 72 sets of amendments were requested and drafted, but not circulated. The decision to circulate amendments is purely a matter for senators. Reasons that amendment sheets may not be circulated include the sponsoring senator deciding not to proceed with the amendments, or amendments being drafted to inform negotiations between parties or as an alternative position to circulated amendments.
In accordance with section 53 of the Constitution, 6 sets of amendments were framed as requests to the House of Representatives. For these requests, the office produced statements of reasons to explain why the amendments were framed as requests, as required by the Senate’s procedures. The majority of the requests that were drafted related to the government’s coronavirus response package.
Senators continued to use private senators’ bills as a means of furthering debate on policy issues and, in some cases, influencing the government to pursue legislative action. In 2020–21, the office received requests for 47 private senators’ bills, all of which were progressed in accordance with senators’ instructions, and 18 private senators’ bills were introduced. This demand was similar to the previous reporting period and reflects a strong interest among non-government senators for a legislative response to policy matters of concern to them.
Figure 10 summarises legislative drafting and procedural services provided to senators over the past four years.
Figure 10 – Legislative drafting and procedural advice services provided to senators
| Service |
2017–18 |
2018–19 |
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
| Committee of the whole amendments circulated |
1011 |
473 |
608 |
740 |
| Second reading amendments circulated |
30 |
26 |
52 |
59 |
| Private senators’ bills introduced |
31 |
39 |
32 |
18 |
| Procedural scripts prepared |
727 |
689 |
977 |
677 |
The results of a formal survey of senators and staff, as well as informal feedback, confirmed the quality of the procedural advice and legislative drafting service provided by the office including where support was provided within the tight time constraints common in sitting weeks.
Support for legislative scrutiny committees
During the reporting period, the Legislative Scrutiny Unit provided secretariat, research and administrative support to the following committees:
- Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights
- Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, and
- Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation (formerly the Regulations and Ordinances Committee).
The committees examine bills and legislative instruments according to their terms of reference. The committees generally report each sitting week on the bills and legislative instruments scrutinised, and annually outline their work and the significant matters they have pursued during the year. In response to the impact of pandemic restrictions, the committees varied their usual practices to regularly meet and report outside of sitting weeks to ensure their scrutiny reports were available in a timely way.
In preparing the reports tabled during this period, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights secretariat examined 199 bills (278 in 2019–20) and drafted 16 reports containing comments on 36 bills (76 in 2019–20) raising matters relating to the committee’s terms of reference set out in the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011). The secretariat also examined 1,826 disallowable and exempt legislative instruments (2,272 in 2019–20) and drafted comments on 48 instruments (33 in 2019–20).
In this reporting period, the Scrutiny of Bills Committee secretariat examined 273 bills (296 in 2019–20) and drafted 19 reports, containing comments on 103 bills (129 in 2019–20) raising matters relating to the committee’s terms of reference under Senate standing order 24.
The Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation Committee secretariat examined 1,316 disallowable legislative instruments (1,695 in 2019–20) against its terms of reference set out in Senate standing order 23. The secretariat prepared 15 reports, containing comments on 194 instruments (290 in 2019–20) and identifying 150 instruments for the attention of the Senate. The committee also tabled two reports relating to its broad-ranging inquiry into the exemption of delegated legislation from parliamentary oversight. On 16 June 2021, the Senate adopted three recommendations of the final report, including amendments to standing order 23 to allow the committee to scrutinise instruments that are exempt from disallowance.
The work of the three committees in scrutinising bills and legislative instruments supports parliamentary consideration of legislation in a number of important ways, including influencing the drafting of bills and legislative instruments, informing debate in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and resulting in amendments to bills and legislative instruments and associated explanatory materials.
Continuing on from the previous reporting period, the three committees have examined and reported on a significant volume of delegated and primary legislation made in response to the pandemic, with the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation Committee publishing lists of COVID-19 related legislation relevant to their terms of reference on their websites to promote public scrutiny of these laws. During the reporting period, 14 COVID-19 related bills had been introduced into the Parliament and 301 COVID-19 related legislative instruments were registered on the Federal Register of Legislation. Committee secretariats supported the committees in this work in addition to the usual support provided to the committees. This work will continue into the next reporting period.
Parliamentary information and training
The Procedure and Research Section helps to increase knowledge of the role and work of the Senate by coordinating a range of lectures, seminars and public information activities and by producing parliamentary resources.
Training and resources
In response to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, the section focused on the provision of training and seminars presented under a hybrid model (in person and via videoconference) as well as wholly via videoconference. As the section continues to develop its remote delivery capacity, modifications to presentation material, resources and methods will continue to be made.
In addition to providing ad hoc one-on-one training sessions for senators by senior officers, the section provided a comprehensive program of training for senators’ staff. In a move away from providing the training during sitting periods and in person, in this reporting period the training was provided in non-sitting periods and presented via videoconference to enable staff to participate regardless of their location. Material available on the Procedural Hub, a resource located on the senators’ intranet (Senate Connect), was used as the primary resource for the training to assist staff to learn about procedural mechanisms as well as to understand the information, templates and forms provided on the site to assist senators.
As can be seen in figure 11, the number of seminars provided to public service agencies reduced due to factors brought about by the pandemic including uncertainty which was reflected in demand. The provision of modified training delivered under a hybrid model has provided flexibility for agencies and particularly for employees working from home. The section will continue to develop its remote delivery capacity in 2021–22 as well as corresponding guidance material and online resources for public service agencies.
The Senate Occasional Lecture Series was similarly affected by the pandemic with the number of lectures significantly reduced in this reporting period. As the lectures were already streamed live, the lectures remained accessible to those who could not attend in person. In this reporting period Auslan interpretation of lectures was introduced.
A program of specialised procedural training sessions was launched for Senate departmental staff with duties directly related to the chamber. Presented by the Clerk and senior managers, the program seeks to build the technical knowledge and procedural capacity of staff who support sittings of the Senate.
50 years of the modern committee system
On 2 December 2020 the President of the Senate launched Navigate Senate Committees, a website launched to celebrate 50 years of the modern committee system. The website locates committees in their historical context and provides a record of committee work represented by reports, photographs and oral history recordings. As committees inquire into matters of national significance, the timeline of inquiries serves as a historical record of the social, economic and technological evolution of the nation.
Figure 11 – Seminars, training programs and lectures, 2017–18 to 2020–21
| Service |
2017–18 |
2018–19 |
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
| Senators’ orientation sessions |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
| Senators’ staff training sessions |
12 |
6 |
11 |
14 |
Seminars for public service officers
- number of seminars
- number of attendees
|
21
519 |
28
573 |
25
573 |
13
331 |
Public lectures
- number of lectures
- number of attendees
- live online views
|
10
1077
236 |
7
631
379 |
7
648
376 |
3
188
228 |
Inter-parliamentary relations and capacity building
The Australian Parliament’s international program focuses on strengthening engagement and cooperation between parliaments internationally, with an emphasis on parliamentary relations with countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The program’s activities and projects in 2020–21 were coordinated by the International and Parliamentary Relations Office (IPRO) and the Parliamentary Skills Centre (PSC), with input from all four parliamentary departments. IPRO manages incoming and outgoing delegation programs, membership of inter-parliamentary organisations, and the international interests and travel of senators and members. The PSC is responsible for all parliamentary strengthening and capacity building programs of the Australian Parliament, including study programs for visiting parliamentarians and staff of other parliaments.
IPRO and PSC are offices administered by the Department of the House of Representatives, and IPRO is funded jointly by the Department of the Senate and the Department of the House of Representatives. The Department of the Senate continued to provide secretariat support to the Australian Delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), including during the 142nd IPU Assembly held remotely, and also responded to various requests for information and research. A detailed description of the work of IPRO and PSC is provided in the annual report of the Department of the House of Representatives.
Performance outlook
A key focus for the Procedure Office for 2021–22 will be to ensure that we continue our high level of service provision within the ongoing constraints of the pandemic. While many of our services, including legislative drafting and procedural advice, can continue largely unaffected, the pandemic prompted a revision of others with a number of initiatives implemented in this reporting period and others to be further explored in the next. The office will also continue its work to provide procedural development resources for departmental staff in order to contribute to knowledge sharing and succession planning across the department.
The Legislative Scrutiny Unit will continue to support the work of the three parliamentary scrutiny committees, including the work being undertaken by the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation Committee and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights to scrutinise the delegated legislation related to the government’s COVID-19 response.
In terms of public information, regular publication of news and events about the Senate will provide a means of informing the public about important developments in the Senate. It is anticipated that this information will be informed by, and complementary to, other activities managed by the office including the lecture series.