What is a Private Members Bill??

(Courtesy of A Just Australia)

A lot of people are wondering what is the process for Petro Georgiou’s Private Member’s Bill? Will it get to a vote? When will it be debated? Could it result in legislative change?

For supporters of A JUST AUSTRALIA and their networks I have attempted to give a description of this complicated process.

Any MP can propose a Private Member’s Bill without approval from the party they are a member of (hence the term private members bill, as they are doing it as a private person not a party member).

The bill goes to the select committee who must approve it for general lawfulness e.g. is it obviously unconstitutional? Once the select committee approves the bill, it is put on the notice paper. The process of going on the notice paper means that the bill is “taken as read[1]” which means on the next sitting day of parliament it gets entered into Hansard (the record of everything that happens in the two chambers of parliament). At this point the private member gets to speak to the bill for 5 minutes, but there is no time put aside for response or debate, and the bill is not voted on.

Approval by the select committee simply means it goes on the notice paper which is the list of bills waiting to be put onto the legislative agenda for debate and vote in the chamber. The government of the day schedules the legislative agenda. Most private members bills languish at this point and never surface again.

There is private business time in the chamber where this bill could be raised and debated. But the member has to negotiate for enough support from other MPs to get a time slot on this limited agenda. And even if they got on, Private Business has a time limit on the debate and vote (generally 1.5 hours). This means that parties can stop a vote on private business by using delaying tactics. Before the vote is taken, everyone who wants to have their say about the issue can register and they get a timed 20 minute slot. By stacking the list of speakers with more people than can speak within the allotted 1.5 hours, the issue cannot be voted upon as not everyone who registered got to have their say, so the issue is deemed to have not been fully and openly debated and considered.

Chances are the member will never get his/her bill another time slot, but even they did, the bill can be ‘talked out’ before a vote every single time it goes up. In this way, the principles of democracy are used as a tool to stop the process of democracy.

Senate Bills – the Senate can lodge bills in the same way, but again it will be talked out before a vote is reached. And even if it passed the Senate, that does not force the House of Reps to debate and vote on the bill as the government schedules senate bills in the same way as private members bills.

Without government support, this bill will never be voted on. This bill is due to be discussed in the coalition party room meeting on Tuesday, 31st May, 2005. It is highly unlikely the government will support this bill for open debate. Had the opposition stated they would not support this bill, the government could allow it to go to a vote to further wedge Labor’s support base, as well as showing it allows for ‘open and democratic’ debate within the party. Since the ALP has indicated it supports the bill, there is no political advantage to the government to allow this bill to be openly debated, therefore they will not let it go further.


What can you do?

We can create a situation where there IS political advantage to taking up the proposals in this Bill. By showing public support for the solutions we can influence our government to adopt them.

We encourage everyone to make their voice heard in support of sensible and humane policy reforms that are immediately achievable.


The Bottom line; Take Care

Take care when speaking with detained asylum seekers. Please do not raise their hopes that this bill will itself result in legislative change. It is a very important step in the process of policy reform, by showing how this situation could be resolved in a humane and sensible way. But in its current form the Bill will probably not result in immediate change.

Please see the latest newsletter from A JUST AUSTRALIA http://www.ajustaustralia.com/whatshappening_newsletter.php?act=newsletter&id=34 for an explanation of the bill proposed by Petro Georgiou and steps you can take to support this proposal.

ACT NOW!
YOU DON’T NEED TO BE AN EXPERT TO HAVE YOUR SAY.


[1] Taken as read simply means the text is forwarded to everyone and it is not actually read out as most bills are so mind-numbingly boring and long it would be considered cruel and unusual treatment to make members sit through an actual reading.


Kate Gauthier
National Coordinator
A Just Australia