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House of Representatives                                Ch 10                                                 p 363

Bill not proceeded with

From time to time a bill will be introduced and remain on the Notice Paper until the reactions of the public to the proposal are able to be made known to the Government and Members generally. As a result of these representations, following an advisory report on the bill from a committee, or for some other reason, ¹ the Government may wish to alter the bill substantially from its introduced form. This may not always be possible because the proposed amendments may not be within the title of the bill or relevant to the subject matter of the bill and may therefore be inadmissible under the standing orders. ² In this case, and sometimes in the case where extensive amendments would be involved, a new version of the bill may be introduced. If this is done, the Government either allows the order of the day in respect of the superseded bill to remain on the Notice Paper until it lapses on dissolution or prorogation, or a Minister or Parliamentary Secretary moves for the discharge of the order of the day. ³ The new version of the bill is proceeded with notwithstanding the existence or fate of a previous similar bill. Discharge of a bill may occur before the presentation of the second version, ⁴ or after the second version has passed the House. ⁵

E.g. following the report of a joint select committee the Telecommunications (Interception) Amendment Bill 1986 was replaced by another bill incorporating many of the committee’s recommendations, VP 1985-87/1029, 1343, 1608.

S.O. 150(a).

S.O. 37(c); VP 1974-75/534.

VP 1973-74/190; H.R. Deb. (16.5.73) 2219-20.

VP 1976-77/512, 524; H.R. Deb. (1.12.76) 3083.