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House of Representatives                                Ch 9                                                 p 313

Effect

The House has the power, within constitutional limits, to make a determination on any question it wishes to raise, to make any order, or to agree to any resolution. In the conduct of its own affairs the House is responsible only to itself. However, the effect of such orders and resolutions of the House on others outside the House may be a limited one. Some resolutions are couched in terms that express the opinion of the House on a matter and as a result may not have any directive force. However, this is not to say that the opinions of the House are to be disregarded, as it is incumbent upon the Executive Government and its employees and others concerned with matters on which the House has expressed an opinion to take cognisance of that opinion when contemplating or formulating any future action.

Other than in relation to matters such as its power to send for persons, documents and records and its powers in regard to enforcing its privileges, decisions of the House alone have no legal efficacy on the outside world. The House, as a rule, can only bring its power of direction into play in the form of an Act of Parliament—that is, only in concert with the other two components of the legislature, the Sovereign and the Senate. This is the only means by which the House can direct (rather than influence) departments of State, the courts and other outside bodies to take action or to change their modes of operation. However, while the House may not have the power to make a direction, a resolution phrased in other terms may in practice be as effective. For example, the resolution of the House of 17 September 1980 seeking to direct the (then) Public Service Board said, in part, ‘. . . (2) the Public Service Board be requested to do all within its power to restore Mr Berthelsen’s career prospects in the Public Service and ensure that he suffers no further disadvantage as a result of this case . . . ’. ¹ The response of the Public Service Board to the request was presented on 24 February 1981. ²

The limitation on the efficacy of orders of the House of Commons on others outside the House was demonstrated in the decisions of the court of Queen’s Bench in the cases of Stockdale v. Hansard (1836-40). The court ruled that an order of the House of Commons alone was not a sufficient cause to protect a person, carrying out that order, from the due processes of the law. As a consequence of the decisions in these cases the objectives of the House in the area were effected by legislation—the Parliamentary Papers Act 1840—as it was only by legislating with the other constituent parts of the Parliament that the House could give sufficient authority to its wishes. ³

Section 47 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 provides that where a resolution has been passed by either House of the Parliament in purported pursuance of any Act, then, unless the contrary intention appears, the resolution shall be read and construed subject to the Constitution and to the Act under which it purports to have been passed, to the intent that where the resolution would, but for this section, have been construed as being in excess of authority, it shall nevertheless be a valid resolution to the extent to which it is not in excess of authority.

VP 1978-80/1673.

VP 1980-81/80.

May , 23rd edn, pp. 184-7.