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You are here: Home > Students > Fact Sheet Series > 51 Preparing a bill for parliament

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Fact Sheets in alphabetical order A Day in Parliament A Day in the Life of an MP Adjournment Debate Amendments Bills and Acts Budget Cabinet Clerk Coalition Coat of Arms Constitution Crossing the Floor Despatch Box Double Dissolution Elections Estimates Federation Frontbenchers & Backbenchers Functions of Parliament Governor-General Hansard House of Representatives Independents Inside Parliament House Joint Sitting of Parliament Leader of the Opposition Mace Main Committee Media Members of Parliament Ministers Ministers & Shadow Ministers Parliament House Facts Parliamentary Committees Party Leadership Party Meetings Party Whip Passing a Bill Petitions Political Party Preparing a Bill for Parliament President of the Senate Prime Minister Private Members & Senators Prorogation & Dissolution Question Time Senate Senators Separation of Powers Serjeant-at-Arms Speaker Speaker's Chair Standing Orders Three Levels of Government Usher of the Black Rod Where Bills Come From Fact Sheets in numerical order 01 The Coat of Arms 02 Despatch Box 03 The Speaker's Chair 04 The Usher of the Black Rod 05 Adjournment Debate 06 Amendments 07 Party Leadership 08 Main Committee 09 Party Meetings 10 The Serjeant-at-Arms 11 The Mace 12 Coalition 13 Prorogation & Dissolution 14 Independents 15 Leader of the Opposition 16 President of the Senate 17 The Governor-General 18 House of Representatives 19 Cabinet 20 Members of Parliament 21 Ministers & Shadow Ministers 22 Political Party 23 The Prime Minister 24 The Media 25 The Senate 26 The Party Whip 27 A Day in Parliament 28 Bills & Acts 29 Functions of Parliament 30 The Speaker 31 The Consitution 32 Senators 33 Double Dissolution 34 Federation 35 Separation of Powers 36 Passing a Bill 37 Frontbenchers & Backbenchers 38 Crossing the Floor 39 Question Time 40 A Day in the Life of an MP 41 Elections 42 Estimates 43 Parliament House Facts 44 Hansard 45 Inside Parliament House 46 Joint Sitting of Parliament 47 Private Members & Senators 48 Ministers 49 Parliamentary Committees 50 Petitions 51 Preparing a Bill for Parliament 52 Standing Orders 53 The Budget 54 The Clerk 55 Three Levels of Government 56 Where Bills Come From

51 Preparing a Bill for Parliament

One of the main responsibilities of ministers and the government is to prepare bills for submission to Parliament. This process may be complex and take a long time.

The process often begins in a Cabinet meeting where the government decides to solve a specific problem with a piece of legislation in the form of a bill. The Cabinet of a newly elected government also has a number of election promises to fulfil. Cabinet has to decide when and how the new policies will be introduced. These election promises may lead to bills being proposed.

Once the Cabinet agrees to do something, the relevant minister then follows a procedure for preparing and introducing bills into Parliament. There are many stages in the process. The main stages are set out below.

1. Cabinet agrees to a proposal and the minister directs the department to write what the Cabinet wants in the new bill (drafting instructions).
2. The drafting instructions may include ideas from a party committee made up of backbenchers, as well as ideas from a parliamentary committee of inquiry that has already reported its recommendations to the Parliament.
3. The department sends the drafting instructions to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel.
4. Parliamentary Counsel employs lawyers who specialise in writing or drafting bills. They write the draft bill and return it to the department and the minister.
5. The department checks the draft. Other departments that might be affected also scrutinise the draft. Often a party committee reads the draft bill to check agreement with party policy.
6. The bill is refined and the minister presents a final version to Cabinet for approval.
7. Once Cabinet has made any changes and approved the final version, Parliamentary Counsel prints the final version and delivers all the copies to Parliament House.
8. Staff in the department who assisted in the drafting of the bill write two documents. The first is the explanatory memorandum which outlines the sources, intention and main provisions of the bill that may not be clearly understood. The department also writes the speech for the Minister which he or she reads to the Parliament when the bill is introduced.
9. The government schedules the bill to appear on the House or Senate agenda.
10. The minister stands up in Parliament and presents both the bill and the Explanatory Memorandum to the Parliament and gives a copy of both to the Clerk. Copies of the bill are then distributed to all members or senators, and the bill is now public. The minister then moves that the bill be read a second time and then proceeds to read the second reading speech.

The bill then continues its passage through the Parliament, which might take days, weeks or even months.

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