P+L Accountability And Procedures

Front 1

Define standing orders.

Back 1

Standing orders are rules governing the conduct of all the business of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The standing orders govern:

- conduct

- order of business

- how motions are made and voted

- the passage of bills

- how to address the speaker/president

They spell out the procedures and processes for everything that goes on in each chamber and it's committees.

Front 2

Describe the role of the speaker/president

Back 2

The speaker in the House of Representatives and the president and less than the presiding officers up each house being forced the standing orders in their particular chamber.

Parliamentarians are bound by the standing order and subject to interpretations of the rules of the speaker or president.

Front 3

Describe Party Discipline.

Back 3

The ALP places a greater emphasis on party discipline by compelling all ALP members to pledge to vote along party lines at the risk of expulsion.

Libs allows for members to cross the floor, although in practice this is not a good idea for members' political careers. Hence why its not common.

Front 4

Rogue Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon 2017

Back 4

Rogue Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon faces penalties ranging from being disciplined by colleagues to expulsion after they concluded she had undermined them and the party during last week's Gonski 2.0 school funding debate. As the government basks in what was a hard-fought legislative victory, the Greens have been left angry, humiliated and fractured over the behaviour of Senator Rhiannon and the party's NSW branch which, Senators believe, has been constantly undermining the leadership of Richard Di Natale.

The destabilisation of the party and Senator Di Natale by NSW led former leader and party founder Bob Brown to describe Senator Rhiannon earlier this year as "the Greens' version of Tony Abbott".

Front 5

Define Party Dicsipline

Back 5

Party discipline is the ability of a parliamentary group of a political party to get its members to support the policies of their party leadership. In liberal democracies, it usually refers to the control that party leaders have over their caucus members in the legislature.

Front 6

Define Gag.

Back 6

A procedure for closing a discussion in a house when some members still wish to speak.

Front 7

Define Guillotine.

Back 7

A procedure which sets time limits on the passage of a bill or motion.

Front 8

Example of using a Gag.

Back 8

Telstra Gag and Guillotine – The Howard Government imposed the guillotine on the debate concerning around $30 billion of taxpayers’ assets in five Bills. The gag is used three times.

"Senator Coonan's (Lib) plan to get the Telstra debate over by the end of next week leaves less than half an hour per Senator and no real time for public input on bills we have not yet seen. Clearly, the Prime Minister has decided to gag the Senate using his new one-seat majority."

Front 9

Senators reject 7-year NBN gag 2010

Back 9

CROSSBENCH MPs have been ordered to sign gag orders as a condition of gaining details of the secret business case for the NBN.The "draconian" conditions from the government were originally to include a seven-year order of silence but were amended yesterday after the Greens and independent Nick Xenophon refused to sign the deed of confidentiality.

Senator Xenophon hit out at the confidentiality agreement as "unreasonable" and declared he would not sign up for a secret briefing if it meant he could not justify his vote in the Senate.

Front 10

Gag in the Senate.

Back 10

Senator cannot be interrupted while speaking, it is possible at any stage between speakers to move the 'closure' to put a motion to an immediate vote. This is done very rarely, except when it is in conjunction with putting the guillotine in place, when it is not that uncommon.

Front 11

Describe the Federation Chamber.

Back 11

The Federation Chamber is essentially a debating committee, established to be an alternative venue to the Chamber of the House for debate of a restricted range of business. It operates in parallel with the Chamber of the House to allow two streams of business to be debated concurrently.

Since 1994 the Federation Chamber (then known as the Main Committee).

It has become increasingly important in managing the time allocated to House business.

Allowing more time for:

- Scrutinising government legislation - Private Members’ business

- Discussion of committee reports.

Front 12

Who makes up the Federation Chamber.

Back 12

The Chair of the Federation Chamber is the Deputy Speaker. The Second Deputy Speaker and members of the Speaker’s panel (see Infosheet No. 3 ‘The Speaker’) assist in chairing meetings of the Federation Chamber.

The Chief Government Whip has primary responsibility—following consultation with Ministers, opposition whips and non-aligned Members—for determining the agenda of the Federation Chamber and organising the referral of business to it from the Chamber.

Front 13

Pros of a Federation Chamber.

Back 13

- Gives Members extra opportunities to speak on certain bills or reports.

- Frees the Chamber for debate on other matters.

- More efficient use of time.

- Significantly increases the amount of time available for considering business.

- Provides extra opportunities for private Members to make speeches.

Front 14

Federal Chamber in terms of accountability.

Back 14

- Meetings of the Federation Chamber are open to the public and are covered by a dedicated channel which can be viewed on the Parliament’s website.

- Debates are recorded in Hansard.

- It has dedicated seating for the public, the press and ministerial and opposition advisers.

Front 15

State the two aspects of judicial review of parliament.

Back 15

1. Highcourts power to adjudicate the constitutional validity of parliament statutes.

２. The High Court and other Federal courts powers to interpret Commonwealth statutes.