When a government decides that a new law is necessary, the minister who will be responsible discusses it with many people, including the cabinet. The bill sets out in detail what the government plans to do. If the Cabinet agrees to go ahead with the bill, all M.P.’s and Senators are given copies to study.
The bill is said to be ‘read three times in the House of Assembly.
a) First Reading: The minister in charge of the bill announces to all M.P.’s at a sitting of the House of Assembly that he is to introduce the bill. Members can then study the bill before the
b) Second Reading: This is when the big debate in the House of Assembly takes place. Government M.P.’s will usually support it and opposition M.P.’s will often criticize it. At the end of the debate, a vote is taken. If a majority votes in favour of it, the bill ‘passes’ its second reading. Assuming that this happens , a committee of the House examines, in detail, the wording of the bill and it is referred back to the House of Assembly for the
c) Third Reading: No debate takes place but a vote is taken. If a majority is in favour, then the bill is said to have passed by the House of Assembly.
When this has taken place, the bill is sent to the Senate where it also has to go through three readings as describe above.
However, as we have seen, the Senate can only delay the passing of a bill. If after a certain length of time the Senate still disagrees with the bill, then the Senate is over-ruled because it is not the elected house. Moreover, the Senate cannot delay or amend money bills, because only the elected representatives can do this.
Because the Senate has a large government majority, it rarely rejects a bill from the House of Assembly. there are some matters, mainly concerned with the changes in the constitution, which require a majority in each house and a referendum(or national vote)of the electors, before they can become law.
After a bill has passed the House of assembly, it goes to the Governor-General to be signed. Once this is done, the bill becomes an Act of Parliament and therefore the law of the land.
