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Ch10 Legislation / ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS / Clerks certificate and transmission to the Senate



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House of Representatives                                Ch 10                                                 p 377

 

Legislation / ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS

 

Clerk’s certificate and transmission to the Senate

When the House passes a House bill, a certificate signed by the Clerk of the House is attached to an introduced copy of the bill. 1 The certificate is in the following form:

This Bill originated in the House of Representatives; and, having this day passed, is now ready for presentation to the Senate for its concurrence.

[Signature]

Clerk of the House of Representatives

House of Representatives

[Date bill passed House]

A copy of the bill bearing the Clerk’s certificate, together with a second copy for the Senate’s records, is placed inside a folder known as a message to the Senate. 2 When a bill has been amended in its passage through the House, a copy of the third reading print, which has the Clerk’s certificate printed on it rather than affixed, is placed in the message for transmission to the Senate, instead of a copy of the unamended bill. The message takes the following form:

Message No. [   ]

Mr/Madam President

The House of Representatives transmits to the Senate a Bill for an Act [remainder of long title]; in which it desires the concurrence of the Senate.

[Signature]

Speaker

House of Representatives

[Date of despatch]

[Short title]

The message to the Senate is signed by the Speaker or, if the Speaker is unavailable, by the Deputy Speaker. 3 Because of the unavailability of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, a Deputy Chairman (the former equivalent of a member of the Speaker’s panel) as Deputy Speaker has signed messages to the Senate transmitting bills for concurrence. 4

In cases where standing orders are suspended to enable related bills to be considered together, the bills are transmitted to the Senate by means of one message. For example, in 1965, 32 bills relating to decimal currency, which were together read a third time in the House, 5 were transmitted to the Senate within the one message. 6 Similarly, on other occasions, nine Sales Tax Assessment Amendment Bills have been transmitted to the Senate in the one message. 7

It is the responsibility of the Serjeant-at-Arms to obtain the Clerk’s signature on the certified copy of the bill and the Speaker’s signature on the message and, if the Senate is sitting, to deliver the message to the Bar of the Senate, where a Clerk at the Table accepts delivery. If the Senate is not sitting, the Serjeant-at-Arms delivers the message to the Clerk of the Senate. Senate practice is that the bill is reported by the President when the Senate Minister representing the Minister responsible for the bill in the House indicates that the Government is ready to proceed with the bill. 8



S.O. 157(a).



S.O. 157(b).



S.O. 259.



J 1968-69/207-8.



VP 1964-66/472, 515.



J 1964-66/452-3.



J 1983-84/1066-7; 1985-87/536; 1990-92/94-5.



Odgers , 11th edn, p. 230.