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Title

Ch18 Parliamentary committees / MEETING PROCEDURES / Time and place of meeting / Joint committeesmeetings during sittings of the Senate

Database

House Practice

Date

01-05-2005

Source

House of Reps

Parl No.

41

Chapter

Parliamentary committees

Chapter No.

Chapter 18

Page

691

Section No.

 

System Id

procedural/practcer/chapter18.101.doc


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Ch18 Parliamentary committees / MEETING PROCEDURES / Time and place of meeting / Joint committeesmeetings during sittings of the Senate



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House of Representatives                                Ch 18                                                 p 691

 

Parliamentary committees / MEETING PROCEDURES / Time and place of meeting

 

Joint committees—meetings during sittings of the Senate

Senate standing order 33, providing for the circumstances in which Senate committees may meet during sittings of the Senate, is also expressed to apply to joint committees. It states:

(1) A committee of the Senate and a joint committee of both Houses of the Parliament may meet during sittings of the Senate for the purpose of deliberating in private session, but shall not make a decision at such a meeting unless:

(a) all members of the committee are present; or

(b) a member appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Government in the Senate and a member appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate are present, and the decision is agreed to unanimously by the members present.

(2) The restrictions on meetings of committees contained in paragraph (1) do not apply after the question for the adjournment of the Senate has been proposed by the President at the time provided on any day.

(3) A committee shall not otherwise meet during sittings of the Senate except by order of the Senate.

(4) Proceedings of a committee at a meeting contrary to this standing order shall be void.

Until 1987 the Senate imposed a general prohibition on committees meeting during its sittings (the view being held that the primary duty of Senators was to the plenary), although leave to sit during sittings of the Senate had been granted on motion. 1 The attitude was taken that leave was required only of the Senate because House of Representatives committees are permitted to meet during sittings of the House. Occasionally resolutions of appointment have authorised joint committees to sit during the sittings of either House of the Parliament. 2

The Joint Committee of Public Account s has reported on the issue of whether it was able to sit while the Senate was sitting, and maintained that it had a statutory right to meet contrary to the provisions of Senate standing orders and the wish of the Senate. 3 However, more recent practice has been for the committee to seek the permission of the Senate to take evidence while the Senate is sitting. 4



E.g. J 1974-75/655.



Joint Committee on Profits, VP 1940-43/158-9, 162; Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, VP 1956-57/168-9, 171 (the name of the committee was altered from Joint Committee on Constitutional Change see PP 50 (1957-58) 4).



Reports 264 and 292 of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts, PP 75 (1987) and PP 317 (1988). See also reports of the Senate Standing Orders Committee, PP 117 (1983) and PP 169 (1987); and J 1987-89/1050.



See also Odgers , 11th edn, pp. 398-9.