The Parliament Bill has passed its first reading this afternoon, Leader of the House, Chris Bishop has announced.
The Parliament Bill will consolidate and modernise the four Acts comprising Parliament’s statutory framework: the Clerk of the House of Representatives Act 1988, the Parliamentary Service Act 2000, the Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Services) Act 2013, and the Parliamentary Privilege Act 2014.
“Today Parliament has taken an important step towards modernising the legislation that supports its operations,” said Mr Bishop.
Other important changes in the Bill include:
- Updating the functions of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker to clarify when the functions and duties of the Speaker are carried out by the Deputy;
- Modernising the statutory functions of the Clerk of the House;
- Providing Parliamentary Security Officers with statutory powers similar to those of court security officers, and
- Transferring to the Electoral Commission the role of determining whether a petition carries the required number of signatures to trigger a referendum.
“I am pleased to see this Bill receive unanimous support from across the House. When dealing with matters regarding how Parliament is run, we want to ensure a bipartisan, constructive approach. I thank Members for their contributions to this Bill and to the first reading debate today.”
“As part of the cross-party collaborative approach to this Bill, it has been agreed that a special select committee will be created with representatives from every parliamentary party to consider it. The Government intends to nominate former Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Adrian Rurawhe, to chair this committee.
“The Bill has now been referred to the special select committee for six months and I hope to pass it into law in 2025,” said Mr Bishop.
