Steps to improve the relevance of the Victorian Parliament

There can also be time limits imposed in relation to answers to questions and adjournment debates. For example in Wales and Scotland, questions have to be delivered within 3 minutes and the Minister has to respond in 3 minutes. Wales has a system of supplementary questions which are limited to 1 minute to ask and 1 minute to respond. The Presiding Officer has the authority to determine the number of supplementary questions to be allowed.

Whilst our system at Question time is different to the British models there are certainly reforms that the Victorian Parliament could make which would, in my opinion, improve the operation and the professionalism of the operation of Parliament.

4. Legislation

The passage of legislation in the Parliaments I visited showed the way to a more democratic and inclusive way of considering legislation.

In Wales the introduction of the intent of a Bill to the House with an immediate reference to a Committee does allow a wider scrutiny of bills than Victorians have been used to in our system.

However with the current Bracks Government there has been a move towards more consultation with the community through the public release of public or exposure bills. Some examples of this are the Racial and Religious Tolerance Bill and the essential Services Commission Bill.

Again in Wales when the Bill goes to the Committee stage it can be treated in a number of ways. Public hearings can be held, written submissions can be called for, and expert witnesses can be invited to address the committee. This did sound as though it could be a time consuming process, however it was pointed out to me that it was probably only major bills that went through this extensive process.

I was assurred that if necessary all the stages of the legislative program can be completed within 24 hours.

After the Committee stage the Bill returns to the House where all parties are able to give their views. There can be a further committee stage if this is required for further amendment to the legislation.

One would think that legislation would be improved and that there would be less need for amendments to legislation, if there was a wider examination of proposals at an early stage of the legislative process.

The current Government has made important steps to improve the democratic process and the public meetings that have been arranged to discuss proposed legislation have been generally well attended and useful.

Finally, the processes that govern the Victorian Parliament were set up in 1850, and whilst there has been change over the years, these have mainly been peripheral and have not been the subject of wide scale reform.

Government changes to parliamentary procedures cannot be successfully introduced without the support of the Opposition. If one were to assess the chance of reform in Victoria, taking into account the negative view of the Opposition during the discussion of Upper House Reforms, I think one would be fairly pessimistic.

However it is worthwhile at least to raise these issues in the hope that they will be assessed fairly and objectively as ways of providing a more democratic and more professional form of parliamentary process in Victoria.