Legislative Assembly
Parliament of
Fact Sheet 17
Amendments to Bills —
A Practical Guide
The aim of this guide is to outline the procedure
relating to the preparation and moving of amendments and the relevant formal
requirements. The procedure is explained
initially and the formal requirements are set out later in the guide. It is intended primarily to assist members
who wish to move amendments to bills.
Additional guidance can be sought from the Clerk’s Office or the
Procedure Office.
Information about reasoned amendments is available in Fact Sheet 3: Reasoned Amendments, or
from the Procedure Office. A reasoned
amendment is not an amendment to the text of a bill, but a method of showing an
argument for opposing or delaying the bill, usually on an issue of principle.
A flow chart, showing the stages at which amendments
may be circulated and moved, appears below.
Procedure
When can a bill be amended?
Although there are a number of stages in the
consideration of a bill where amendments may be proposed, the most common
stages are when the bill is considered in detail or when amendments made by the
Legislative Council are being considered.
Who drafts the amendments?
All amendments must be drafted by Parliamentary
Counsel. Instructions should be given to them at the earliest opportunity.
What happens after the draft is approved?
It is important that approval is confirmed with
Parliamentary Counsel by the member as soon as possible so that the amendments
can be prepared for circulation in the House.
Similarly, Parliamentary Counsel also need authority to release a copy
(at the draft or final stage) to the Procedure Office. This is so that the
amendments can be checked by that Office to ensure they are constitutionally
and procedurally acceptable to the Legislative Assembly.
Once this check has been completed and, subject to
clearance from the relevant member, Parliamentary Counsel releases a final copy
of the amendment to the Procedure Office.
After release multiple copies are made by the Office and kept securely
in the Chamber until the amendment is circulated. The member moving the amendment received six
copies of it. Copies are not provided to
ministers who move amendments.
How are amendments circulated?
An amendment cannot be formally moved until the consideration
in detail stage is reached. They can,
however, be circulated earlier. Standing
Order 64 allows amendments to be circulated during the second reading debate of
bills. After amendments have been circulated, a member may discuss their
general principles during the debate.
For government amendments to be eligible for consideration
under the government business program, they must be circulated at least two
hours before the cut-off time set under the program for that week.
Leave is not needed to circulate an amendment but
another member should not be speaking at the time it is done. Although the Clerk will be aware that
amendments have been prepared, members should advise the Clerk before
circulating them. The Clerk provides the
member with the wording of the announcement needed, normally ‘I wish to advise
the House of amendments to the [ ] Bill
and request that they be circulated’.
How are amendments
moved?
Unless
otherwise decided during consideration in detail, a bill will be considered in
a set sequence, the Deputy Clerk calling each part as applicable:
·
Clauses in turn
·
New clauses
·
Schedules
·
New schedules
·
Preamble
·
Long title
·
Short title.
Clauses are normally considered individually but may
be moved in groups where there are no amendments to a sequence of clauses, and providing
there has not been any indication that a member wants to speak on a particular
clause in that sequence.
Amendments are dealt with during the consideration of
the relevant part of the bill and in the order that they affect the text of the
bill. Normally an amendment may be moved
by the member referring to the copy he or she has previously circulated, saying
for example: ‘I move amendment No 1 standing in my name’. The amendment may be supported with an
explanation.
Disagreeing with an
entire clause
Where a member disagrees with an entire clause
Parliamentary Counsel will indicate that disagreement in the amendments
prepared by saying the clause should be omitted. For example, the amendments may include
‘Clause 14, omit this clause’.
When the clause is called on, a formal amendment that
the clause ‘be omitted’ does not need to be moved. Instead, the member should vote against the
clause. It is included by Parliamentary
Counsel only as an indication of the member’s intention.
What is the procedure for the consideration of amendments?
After
debate, the Chair will put the relevant question. Where there is general agreement a simple
question ‘That the amendment be agreed to’ is proposed and carried on the
voices (ie without a division). In
situations where an amendment is contested or is to be amended by another
amendment, the following questions may be proposed:
·
To omit words:
the question is ‘that the words proposed to be omitted stand part’. In effect this is asking that the relevant
words should be left in the bill. They
will only be removed if the question is defeated.
·
To substitute
words: the questions are ‘That the words proposed to be omitted stand part of
the clause’, followed by ‘That the words proposed in the amendment be inserted’
if the previous question has been defeated.
·
To insert or add
words: the question is ‘That such words be inserted [or added]’.
If an amendment is defeated, any amendments
consequential on that particular amendment automatically fail and may not be
moved.
Where various members are moving amendments to the same
clause, the government amendment will be moved first, with the Chair accepting
amendments to that amendment. The Chair
will, however, attempt to put the questions so as not to preclude proposed
amendments by other members.
For example, Chairman Coyle[1]
tested amendments in a situation where three members proposed amendments to the
same part of the bill. In order to
preserve the rights of each, he tested the first amendment by putting the
question for the omission of a small group of words. He then put a question relating to the
omission of another small group of words immediately following in order to test
the second amendment. Both questions
being defeated, the Chair then put the question relating to the third
amendment, concerning the insertion of words immediately following the second
small group of words.
Call lists and grouping of amendments
In a complicated situation, where two or more members
move various sets of amendments, informal call lists are prepared by the Deputy
Clerk to assist the Chair. The list may
be based on those clauses proposed to be amended and/or upon clauses which
members have informally indicated to the Chair they want to speak on.
For convenience, the list will also indicate to the
Chair the grouping of amendments. With
the leave of the House the Chair may permit the debate to range over several
amendments which are connected or consequential to the actual amendment under
consideration.
What happens if consideration in detail does not occur?
Generally amendments can only be considered after they
have been moved during Consideration in Detail.
There is an alternative procedure in Standing Order 96 for dealing with
government amendments under the government business program. Note that this only applies to government amendments,
there is no opportunity for private members (non-ministers) to move amendments
in this situation.
Where government amendments have been circulated[2] in
relation to a programmed bill, and the consideration in detail stage has not
been reached or concluded, the Chair must deal with the amendments at the cut
off time specified under the program for that week. That question, as appropriate, will be
combined with any other outstanding questions, for example ‘That this bill be
now read a second time, government amendments Nos 1 to 6 inclusive be agreed to
and the bill be read a third time …’. No
debate is allowed and the question as a whole is put.
Formal
Requirements
Construction
All amendments must be constructed in the correct
form. Under Standing Order 157 text may
be amended by:
·
Omitting words
·
Omitting words to
add or insert others (substitution)
·
Inserting or
adding words.
When drafted, amendments must refer to the clause
number, page number (optional and is used where a clause goes over more than
one page) and the line number. They must
also be in the correct order for consideration in detail (see above).
Relevancy
To be admissible, amendments must be within the scope
of, or relevant to, the subject matter of the bill. If an amendment is proposed to an amendment
made by the Legislative Council, it must be relevant to the Council’s
amendment.
During consideration in detail the House is restricted
to considering the principles contained in the original bill.
If amendments contain new principles, these can only
be considered in certain circumstances, and if a motion is moved to extend the
scope of the bill. A motion to extend
the scope of the bill is only allowed where an amendment is reasonably relevant
to the scope of the bill. If the amendment
is only remotely relevant, an extension to the bill's scope is not permitted,
and the amendment cannot be moved.
Should a member attempt to move it, the Chair would rule it to be
inadmissible.
The motion moved by the member to extend the scope of
the bill must specify the new principle to be considered. Usually one day’s notice of the motion is
given, but it can also be moved by leave.
Appropriation and taxation
Appropriation is Parliament’s authorisation of
government expenditure. If any of the
clauses in a bill forces an appropriation, the bill can only proceed if a
message from the Governor recommending an appropriation from the Consolidated
Fund is presented.
Where an amendment causes, or increases, an
appropriation, the amendment can only be considered if an appropriation message
is presented. If a message has already
been presented for the bill itself, the second message is known as a ‘further
appropriation message’.
Only a minister can request such messages. Similarly, any proposal to increase the rate
of an existing tax can only be made by a minister. This effectively means that only ministers
can propose such amendments and any attempt by private members (non-ministers)
to move them would be ruled out of order.
In such circumstances a member should consider moving a reasoned
amendment: see Fact Sheet 3: Reasoned
Amendment.
Issued by the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, November 2004
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, Phone No: 03
9651 8563 Fax No: 03 9650 7245 Email: assembly@parliament.vic.gov.au |