Parliament of Victoria. Contact Details Phone. Audio loops are available in the Chambers. These can be used in conjunction with hearing aids. Please visit Destination Greater Victoria for more information. Toggle navigation Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Visiting the Legislature Advanced Search.
Visiting the Legislature. Welcome Message Welcome to the Parliament Buildings, home to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia where elected representatives — called Members of the Legislative Assembly or MLAs — meet to shape the future of the province by debating and passing the laws that govern British Columbia. What to Do While You're Here. Dine in the Parliamentary Dining Room We are thrilled to announce that in conjunction with all public health guidelines, our seated dining services resume beginning Tuesday, October 20, Book the Grounds The grounds of the Parliament Buildings are available for use for a wide variety of non-commercial events and performances.
If you right-click on your State District electorate, you can find links to the Members for your Region and your District. You can also use the layers tool to show your Federal electorate, local council and local council ward. All councils are divided into a number of smaller areas, called wards, each which is represented by a number of councillors. Printing maps and boundaries is achieved using the button. Only Firefox and Chrome support this feature. One of the things that I thought was an unintended consequence, going way back to , was that the then-Queensland Government—facing electoral defeat—came up with the novel idea of extending the life of the existing Parliament.
Now this was not well-received. There was an election, the government was defeated, and the Labor Party came back into power. And what did it do in about ? It entrenched three-year parliaments in the Constitution. Everyone forgot about that. Now move to the early s. Premier Goss and others think it is probably a good idea for Queensland to go the way of many other states and have four-year parliaments.
Well, we had to have a referendum—and guess what happened to the referendum? It got defeated. As you know, opposition parties find it very difficult to resist the temptation to oppose referendums, even though they support them.
Now it seemed to me in , that no-one had imagined in that there would be a notion that we would like to increase the life of the Parliament. This was one party trying to prevent another party getting up to mischief. Question — In in New Zealand they introduced a bill in almost identical terms to this one. The idea was to put some democracy into their Constitution. They had eight electorates, five members, proportional representation and all that stuff. I know you have mentioned shifting out the right of supply.
But what about its other legislation—is that just to be stopped? And often they have got very few votes. Have a look at the disgraceful show in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, with its six or seven parties.
And in addition, this idea of one parliament tying another parliament up—are you aware of the disgraceful case of the Attorney-General against Trethowan? That was a shocking case. But you are doing the same thing here, and you are doing it in your legislation. What he was trying to do was introduce a double dissolution provision, and it failed. It is quite intriguing in Victorian politics that two of the big attempts—one successful, one a failure—to change the upper house were introduced by the Country Party.
One was double dissolution, which failed, and the other was universal franchise, which succeeded. If you reduce its powers right down, you get to the other side of the Dunstan conundrum, which is—why have it?
And there was very little of it in the debates. Question — With many of their powers now blunted, what is the role of upper houses in the states? Do you have any comment on the argument that the Labor Party, through these amendments, has acted against its short-term political interests? It has got the standing orders—as former Council President Bruce Chamberlain always pointed out—so the Parliament will decide.
Regarding your second question—the answer is maybe yes. Could Labor do it again? In other words, could they defend that upper house majority? History says no. And apparently it was not just a backbencher making a throw-away remark, there were serious suggestions made.
Question — Regarding abolition, you have the precedent in Queensland. Brian Costar — Well, until this legislation passed they could have easily abolished it just by passing legislation through both houses.
I think you have to split the functions. When you blur the functions, you can get into all the problems that that brings. It was prepared before the raft of reforms recommended by the Constitution Commission Victoria and incorporated in the Constitution Parliamentary Reform Bill were introduced into the Victorian Parliament, and given the day after the bill was passed by the Legislative Council.
The bill became law on 8 April Melbourne, Oxford University Press, , p.
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