Unit 14 P1

Before there is a law, there is a bill – and bills have many phases to pass through before these may become laws. The course materials of week three point out that a bill can originate

Legislation is a law or a couple of laws made by the government and finalised by the parliament. The parliament decides whether the legislation is good enough or needs improvement.

From these discussions parliamentary subcommittees are formed to look at different parts of the idea. Subcommittees are smaller discussions which have less MP’s involved. If the idea is considered to be worthwhile after these discussions then the idea is put onto a ‘green paper’.

In the Lords, the Labour peers’ opposition backed an amendment, meaning the voter turn out threshold of 40 per cent for the referendum result on alternative vote was to be binding. Although this amendment was overturned in the House of Commons, another amendment regarding constituency boundaries was cross -party supported and authorised by government. This amendment was that the Isle of Wight should remain as one constituency, instead of being separated into two. This bill took 17 days to go through the Lords which included one twenty hour overnight sitting, showing how greatly debated the bill was. A more recent example of the Lords effectively scrutinising public bills was related to the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013, where the Lords raised concern about two parts of this bill: local planning and employment rights. The Lords made an amendment to the bill, allowing councils to opt out of the planning scheme, which was overturned by the Commons. The Lords challenged the Commons, and so the government decided that home -owners wishing to build extensions would have to notify the council of their plans, who would then inform their neighbours. Only if their neighbours raised an objection would the council have to intervene. This highlights how the House of Lords are arguably more effective in scrutinizing public bills, as this amendment,

A bill can be introduced in the House of Commons (C-bills) or the Senate (S-bills), but

Laws in NSW Parliament are passed much the same way as in Federal Parliament. Bills are assessed by a two-house Parliament, the lower house, which is known as the Legislative Assembly, and an upper house, which is known as the Legislative Council. A bill will go through several stages before it is presented to the parliament for voting, either house may propose bills. If a bill receives a majority vote in both houses of parliament, it is sent to the Governor for approval, and after which, the bill is made law.

Nonetheless, scrutiny is not the only role of Parliament, as most people recognise it for its legislative function, to make legislation legitimate as the primary law making body. As Parliament is acting on behalf of the electorate, the House of Commons has become the more dominant chamber in Parliament. Although bills can start in either chamber, the Commons is where the majority of legislation is introduced, and it passes over 100 bills each year. However, the bills do not just go through to the Royal Ascent easily, the House of Lords stands in place to review and amend the white papers sent through from the House of Commons, for example the amendment of the Terror bill in 2005. Moreover, the Lords are also able to reject bills that it redeems unsuitable for example the previous Labour government’s proposal of national ID cards. The input from the House of Lords into the law making process is extremely valuable as it consists of experts in many different fields including medicine (Lord Winston) and business (Lord Sugar).

Where they will go through the same process as to the House of Commons, but, when they have done the third reading the bill will go through the consideration of amendments. This is where the house of lords makes any changes to the bill, then the bill has to go back to the house of commons so they can approve it before it goes to the queen. However, if both houses cannot come to any agreement, the house of commons will get the say, because they have more power than the house of lords. Finally, the last stage is Royal Assent, where the crown formally assents to the bill in order for it to become a law.

Comparing the Emplementation and Scrutinizing of Proposed Bills in the House of Commons and Congress

What I believe to be critical is the committee chair decides whether there will be hearing on the bill and whether there will be “ markup” (A markup is when members of the Committee officially decides on a hearing date to meet to offer to make changes to the bill as introduced). Usually a sub-committee holds the hearing, but sometimes if a bill is marked up in subcommittee and the full committee then actions are only taken place in the full committee level. During the hearing, proponents and opponents give evidence and discuss based on their individual merits of the legislation. At this time, members of the committee can change components of the bill. The committee members may propose amendments to improve the bill or to reach a compromise

Primary Legislation: Starts as a bill and then goes through several stages through parliament if it is passed by a majority vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate and agreed by both houses it will be sent to the Governor General for Royal Assent, if approved it will become an Act.

Then in the second reading, the member in charge of the bill will explain the reasons for introducing the bill and outline the principles of the bill and its benefits to society in general. If these basic rules of the bill are agreed to, the bill may directly proceed to the third reading. Otherwise, it needs to go through the committee stage

New law or changes in existing law is ensured by an Act of Parliament. Furthermore, these bills must be perceived from the bills of private people that are proposed by backbench MPs. different various sources begin open bills (Ellison, 2008). Government, common management, political gatherings, Civil Servant, organizations, boards, green/white papers, authoritative process, face off regarding and so forth may deliver these bills. Decision about whether to agree with the suggestion of these bills are picked by the governing body. A particular office that is in position to pass the bill on a specific point will encounter an insight system with the contributed people (Edwards, 2012). Dependent upon the multifaceted

If the Bill was started in the Commons it would now be passed to the

reading, if the Council approves all of Parliament’s amendments, the act is adopted. If it is not, the