Legislative Assembly
Parliament of
Fact Sheet 27
Parliamentary
Committees
Introduction
Parliamentary committees are groups of members of
Parliament who conduct investigations and make recommendations about topics of
particular interest to the Parliament.
Types of Committees
There are
three types of parliamentary committees. They are:
·
Joint
Investigatory Committees — appointed each Parliament to investigate issues in
particular subject areas
·
Select
Committees — dealing with particular investigations
·
Domestic
Committees — focusing on the operations of Parliament.
Joint Investigatory Committees
The Parliamentary
Committees Act 2003 sets out the functions and powers of investigatory
committees. At the start of each Parliament, the Legislative Assembly and the
Legislative Council appoint members to the various committees. In practice, members will express interest in
specific committees to their party leader, who will consider that when
nominating them. All members can serve
on committees, but in the case of investigatory committees, ministers do not
serve. Shadow ministers are likely,
however, to serve on the committee related to their shadow portfolio.
Joint
investigatory committees are made up of members of both Houses, and are
administered by one House or the other.
Those administered by the Department of the Legislative Assembly in the
present Parliament are:
·
Drugs and Crime
Prevention Committee
·
Electoral Matters
Committee
·
Family and
Community Development Committee
·
Public Accounts
and Estimates Committee
·
Rural and
Regional Committee
·
Scrutiny of Acts
and Regulations Committee.
The Department of the Legislative Council administers:
·
Economic
Development and Infrastructure Committee
·
Education and
Training Committee
·
Environment and
Natural Resources Committee
·
Law Reform
Committee
·
Outer
Suburban/Interface Services and Development Committee
·
Road Safety
Committee.
All of the joint investigatory committees are
supported by the Joint Committee Administration Office.
The joint investigatory committees are given terms of
reference either by the Assembly or Council under the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003 or by the Governor in
Council. Usually, the terms of reference
will set out a time frame for conducting the inquiry.
Some examples of terms of reference issued to committees are:
·
Drugs and Crime
Prevention Committee — Inquiry into
Misuse/Abuse of Benzodiazepines and other forms of Pharmaceutical Drugs in
Victoria
·
Family and
Community Development Committee — Inquiry
on the
Involvement of Small and Medium Size Business in Corporate Social
Responsibility
·
Scrutiny of Acts
and Regulations Committee — Inquiry into
Redundant and Unclear Legislation — Repeal of Corporations Laws Inquiry.
Select Committees
Select committees, sometimes known as specific purpose
committees, can also be set up to conduct particular inquiries, normally
looking at a single issue, and are usually drawn from the members of one
House. Select committees are appointed
under standing orders by resolution of the relevant House and exist for a
length of time specified in the resolution or until the Assembly expires,
whichever happens first. The resolution
will set out the committee’s terms of reference and will state when it must
report to Parliament. A select committee
can release discussion papers and interim reports, and will table a final
report.
While select committees have been relatively uncommon
in the Assembly in recent years, they are still potentially a part of Assembly
practice. The last Assembly select
committee was the Community Welfare Services Files Committee, established in
1979, while the last joint select committee was the Parliament of Victoria
Committee, set up in 1991. The
Legislative Council, however, has had a number of operative select committees
in recent years.
Domestic Committees
Domestic committees are essentially select committees,
in that they are purpose-specific, and are not primarily ‘investigatory’ in
nature.
The House Committee is established by the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, and
members are appointed by resolutions of the two Houses. Its members are drawn
from both Houses, as the House Committee is responsible for services which
benefit the Parliament as a whole, for example finance, organisation
development and building maintenance.
The Dispute Resolution Committee was established under
the Constitution Act 1975 following
amendments to the Act in 2003. Its purpose is to consider bills upon which the
two Houses cannot agree. It is made up of members of both Houses who meet
together to come to a resolution about how the bill in question can be passed
by both Houses.
In
addition, the Assembly has two domestic select committees, set up by resolution
of the House:
·
Privileges
Committee — to consider issues relating to members’ parliamentary rights and
immunities and requests for right of reply
·
Standing
Orders Committee — to review the procedural rules of the House.
Investigations and Reports by Committees
Conducting an Inquiry
Investigatory and select committees, and domestic
committees to a lesser extent, conduct their inquiries using the procedures
described below.
Committees are a part of Parliament, and constitute a
great deal of individual members’ time.
They can call for witnesses, summons documents and conduct interviews, as
well as ask for voluntary submissions from relevant people and
organisations. Committees will
invariably advertise in newspapers forthcoming public hearings, or calls for
submissions, so that the broader public can take part. Public hearings will often take place outside
the Melbourne metropolitan area.
Committee members and staff sometimes travel interstate and
internationally to study other places’ experiences with the issue under
investigation.
Committee proceedings and witnesses appearing before
them are protected by parliamentary privilege.
Section 50 of the Parliamentary
Committees Act 2003 also provides that joint investigatory committee
proceedings and documents published by them do not give rise to a cause of
action in law, and cannot be the subject of court proceedings.
Progress on Investigations
At the end of each month a document is issued called Progress on Investigations. This is available from the Assembly Procedure
Office or on Parliament’s website [choose Committees ® Progress on Investigations]. Committees frequently conduct more than one
investigation at a time, and the Progress
on Investigations reflects the stage each investigation has reached every
month. This applies to the inquiries
undertaken by investigatory and select committees, but not domestic
committees. It is a very useful way of
keeping track of investigations.
Tabling Committee Reports
During the course of an investigation, committees will
often release discussion papers, and table interim reports. Once an inquiry has been completed, a final
report is tabled in the Assembly by the committee’s chair or
representative. If Parliament is not
sitting within 21 days of a committee adopting a report, the committee may
choose to ‘table’ the report out of session, by giving a copy to the Clerk of
each House, who makes it available to members.
After that it is publicly available from the relevant committee’s
website, the Assembly Procedure Office where stocks allow, and the committee
directly.
Domestic committees may report to the House on a
matter affecting their responsibilities although they tend to focus on
day-to-day administration of domestic matters rather than long-term
investigations. However, the Privileges
Committee reports to Parliament relatively often under Standing Order 227 (see Fact Sheet 11: Right of Reply by
Persons Referred to in the House) and other privilege matters.
Members may make statements about parliamentary
committee reports tabled in the House during the current Parliament (excluding
some reports by the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee). This practice is covered by standing
orders. Statements can be made on a
sitting Wednesday, and the overall time for statements is 30 minutes, or until
six members have spoken, whichever is the shorter.
Government Response
When an investigatory committee reports it makes
recommendations to Parliament, and in effect to the Government, about the
subject investigated. Under the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, the
Government is obliged to present to the Parliament its response to the
recommendations made by an investigatory committee within six months.
Often the committee’s recommendations form the basis
for the Government’s legislative reform and, as the recommendations are made by
all-party committees, can enjoy support from all sides of the House. The Government is not, however, under any
obligation to adopt any of the recommendations.
Government responses are available from the Assembly Procedure Office
after tabling.
Contacting the Committees
More information about parliamentary committees can be found on
Parliament’s website or by contacting: Joint Committee Administration Office,
Parliament House, Spring Street, East Melbourne Vic 3002, phone 03 8682 2800.
Issued by the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, April
2008
Fact Sheets
The
Legislative Assembly Procedure Office has produced a series of Fact Sheets
that explain parliamentary procedure and terminology. All Fact Sheets are
available on Parliament’s website www.parliament.vic.gov.au
or through the Procedure Office. Contact Details
Procedure
Office, Legislative Assembly, Parliament House, Spring Street, East
Melbourne, Vic 3002 Phone No: 03 9651 8563 Fax No: 03 9650 7245 Email: assembly@parliament.vic.gov.au |