Assessment Task 2: Senate Inquiry
Instructions for Part A: Written Submission
This task is situated within the overall PUBH632 Assessment simulation, and relates to Part II – Senate Inquiry. You should review the simulation materials available on LEO. You will continue to represent the NGO you selected in Part I.
For the policy analysis in Part I, there was a considerable element of speculation. Details of the policy were scant, contained only within the Prime Minister’s statement to the House. The previous task most definitely involved analysis for policy (Lecture 9), whereas this task involves consideration of the fine details and is analysis of policy. In this case, the detail of the policy is expressed in legislative terms in the form of a Bill before the Parliament (with accompanying Explanatory Memorandum).
Your task is to make a written submission to the Senate Inquiry in line with Terms of Reference provided in the simulation. To assist you with this task, please read through the following instructions.
Parliamentary process
Between the Prime Minister’s statement to the House of Representatives (at the end of Part I) and the commencement of Part II, a Bill was prepared and put before the Parliament. The Bill reflects the “Healthy Migrants” policy proposal, but with substantially more detail compared to the original statement.
A Bill is proposed legislation, either to create a law (new legislation) or amend a law (change legislation). A Bill is a draft Act and has no legal effect: it becomes an Act when passed by both Houses of Parliament and assented to by the Governor-General.
The typical process for preparation of a Bill is for a policy proposal such as “Healthy Migrants” to be developed (however thoroughly) and then be considered by the Cabinet. If endorsed, it is usually the responsibility of the relevant Minister (and Department) to continue the development of the policy/Bill.
Ultimately it is the Office of Parliamentary Counsel (OPC) that drafts the Bill to be presented to the Parliament. OPC is an independent statutory body, led by the First Parliamentary Counsel who is responsible for the preparation of proposed legislation put before Parliament. Usual practice is for the responsible Department to instruct OPC to draft the Bill; when completed, the Department, Ministers and Government party members review the Bill.
When approved, the Bill then begins its passage through the Parliament, starting with “notice” to the Clerk of the House (to schedule it as House business). The next step is “first reading”, where the Bill (and Explanatory Memorandum) is introduced to the House and made available to all Members (and to the public).
A complete description of Parliamentary process (including “second reading”) can be found here.
For the purposes of the simulation, the Bill has moved well beyond the OPC drafting phase and first reading in the House of Representatives. It is now in an intermediate stage where the Senate has referred it to the Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills.
1 After subsection 4(4)
Insert the following “Object of Act”:
(5) To advance its object, this Act provides for processes to ensure the good health of non-citizens, where doing so is necessary to reduce burden on Australia’s healthcare system and to protect public health in Australia.
Addition: item 1 of the Bill inserts this new text after the current section 4(4) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). If the Bill were passed by the Parliament, then section 4 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) would be changed accordingly, and it would have five subsections (s 4(1) to 4(5)) – the original four, followed by this one.
6 Section 65
Repeal the section, substitute:
65 Decision to grant or refuse to grant visa
(1) Subject to sections 84 and 86, after considering a valid application for a visa, the Minister:
(a) if satisfied that:
(i) the health requirement for it has been satisfied; and
[…]
Repeal and substitute: to repeal legislation (or a section of legislation) is to render it void. In this example, Item 6 of the Bill is repealing the current section 65 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), meaning that the Bill proposes to remove the entire section, and substitute with the new version of section 65 within the Bill. If the Bill were passed by the Parliament, then section 65 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) would be amended to reflect this new version of section 65.