1. Evaluating the House of Representatives

2. What is Parliament? Parliament… Is the focus of law making
Derives its authority from the people
Expresses community will
Represents all sectors and interests
Debates issues in spirit of compromise

3. The Hybrid Australian Parliament
Modelled on the Westminster Parliament from England
Adopted elements of the US system
Essentially it is a responsible system within a federal context. Thus it is a compromise design. It has strengths from both systems but also it has weaknesses that spring from a mismatch of the two parent systems.
Eg of weakness – Parliamentary Sovereignty (a key component of the Westminster System) is not possible in Australia because of the High Court and the existence of sovereign states.

4. Australian Bicameralism
The 2 Houses are co-equal in power (another key difference from Westminster), necessitating the “nexus clause” and a process for resolving conflict (double dissolution). A powerful upper house was a key cause of the Constitutional Crisis of 1975.
Each House is ascribed different functions by the Constitution.
H of R = the Popular House and the House of Government
Senate = the States’ House and a House of Review
Each House has a different electoral base

5. Issues With the Australian Parliament
Parliamentary Sovereignty:
Compromised in Australia by the existence of a written constitution, the High Court, sovereign states and, arguably, the GG’s reserve powers
Role of Conventions:
1975 revealed a weakness in the Australian model. Many conventions were broken. The idea that the upper house has a role in the determination of who governs is a fundamental change

6. The House of Representatives
Functions reviewed:
Legislative
Representative
Responsibility
Forum for debate
Education & socialisation
In Australia, how does practice fit theory?

7. Legislative Theory & Practice
Parliament should initiate, deliberate and pass bills
Bills originate from government & ordinary MP’s drawing on a variety of sources.
Thorough scrutiny and amendment ensures bills are of high quality
Practice
Cabinet initiates most bills based on party policy and expert advice
Private Members’ Bills are rarely successful
Opportunity for deliberation is limited by cabinet control of Standing Orders & use of gag, guillotine and flood-gating
Lack of scrutiny results in poor legislation
Much legislative power is delegated to the Public Service

8. Representative Theory & Practice
Four views of representativeness
Delegates who act to express the will of the electorate
Trustees who act in the best interests of the electorate
Partisans who act to support party policy
Mirrors of society – groups in society are reflected in the make up of the parliament
Practice
The single member preferential system benefits major parties– it is therefore good at expressing majority will but poor at providing a voice for minorities
Members are partisans under party discipline (more so for ALP)
Standing Orders provide limited time (petitions, grievances etc) for members to act as delegates or trustees
Members are strongly representative of the male middle class from farming, legal & educational backgrounds. Few blue collar, small business, indigenous and female viewpoints are expressed
More Women are gaining seats (about 23%)

9. Responsibility Theory & Practice
Parliament “makes the Gov’t”
Government must hold the confidence of the House
Ministers are Collective Responsible as a whole for government action and can be dismissed as a group by a motion of no-confidence
Ministers are Individually Responsible for their departments and their personal conduct and can be dismissed by a censure motion
Practice
Party discipline and the majoritarian electoral system leave little room for parliament to make the executive
Motions of no-confidence are easily defeated along party lines and serve more to highlight government misdemeanours
Censure motions are also easily defeated and serve only to embarrass the gov’t. Individual ministers only resign when they become a political liability to the government

10. Debate Theory & Practice
Standing Orders provide the following…
Question Time
Address in Reply
Matters of Public Importance
Urgency Motions
Adjournment Debates
Private Members’ Business
All provide opportunities for debate
Practice
Executive dominance and the government control of Standing Orders limit opportunity for debate
Recent Analysis show the following time allocations…
Government Business = 51.9%
Opposition = 18.2%
Private Members = 15 %
Other 8.85%

11. Summary of Theory & Practice
The House of Representative is clearly unsuccessful in living up to the theory of the ideal parliament.
The “Decline of Parliament Thesis” is the argument that executive dominance is the cause of this
BUT, how realistic is the theory anyway?
The ideal parliament has probably never existed – even in the pre-party era

12. The House of Representatives Today
Parties, voting systems and voter behaviour have resulted in a “bear-pit” parliament
It is highly adversarial between a strong government & strong opposition
Point scoring with an eye on the next election is a major activity in the House

13. The House Today
BUT it is not all bad. We must take the House on its merits as a “modern” parliament and not idealise and romanticise the parliaments of the past.
The House, with its strong parties, does the following very well…
Provides one of the world’s oldest and most stable systems of representative government
Presents clear policies that can be linked to a mandate – hence are democratic
Passes legislation efficiently – a modern society is complex and needs a growing volume of law to govern it. The House is excellent at passing law quickly

14. The House Today
One of the criticisms of the “Decline of Parliament Thesis” is that parliament has ceased to be a deliberative institution.
However, much deliberation still occurs but it is in the Party Room or Caucus of the major parties. Recent Party Room action by Petro Georgiou is an example.
The parties themselves have come to replace much of the original functions of the “ideal parliament” – whilst parliament itself has become the arena of “party battle”.

15. The House Today
Whilst the “Decline of Parliament Thesis” makes some valid criticisms it tends to emphasis the negative and fails to account for the positive role of parties as representative, deliberative institutions.
It also relies too heavily on an illusory “Golden Age” of parliament that never really existed.
The fact is that the House is a “modern” legislative institution – an arena in which the parties present themselves.