Ministerial Careers and Accountability in The Australian Commonwealth Government by Edited by Keith Dowling & Chris Lewis

Author:Edited by Keith Dowling & Chris Lewis [Dowling, Edited by Keith & Lewis, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781922144010
Publisher: ANU E Press
Published: 2012-09-10T14:00:00+00:00

Figure 5.1 Questions to Government, 1963–2010

Source: Annual reports of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Committees

If Question Time is the most high-profile means, parliamentary committees are seen as an increasingly important vehicle of ministerial accountability. Parliamentary committees have a number of advantages over Questions On or Without Notice, and they can give a rather broader and fuller account of ministerial performance. First, because they work through inquiries, they can more thoroughly investigate policy and administration in a particular area and the role of the minister therein. Second, in receiving written submissions and holding hearings with stakeholders, a more rounded picture of the role and performance of ministers and their departments can be gained. As accountability revolves around explanation and interrogation of that explanation, the more deliberative committee process allows this more directly. Third, it has been claimed that properly functioning committees develop internal modes of working that overcome the partisan divisions of other areas of parliamentary life. Working in a small, focused group, committees can develop a certain esprit de corps that breaks down party divisions and sees them develop a degree of independence and willingness to defy their party leaderships and dissent from established party positions (Sartori 1982). Moreover, because committees are expected to base their findings on the evidence they receive in the course of their inquiries rather than on the basis of the predetermined positions of their political parties, again they have the potential to provide a more objective, or at least bipartisan, perspective on ministerial performance. And last, where the committees specialise by subject area, they have the capacity to acquire expertise and experience over time and are consequently better placed to scrutinise the executive and hold it to account. But these are generic advantages of parliamentary committees and the extent to which committees in the Australian Parliament actually develop them needs closer investigation.

There are three systems of standing committee, specialising by policy area (and allied to specific government departments and agencies)—house, joint and senate—with the Senate dividing the legislative and investigative roles between a system of paired committees.1 In addition there are select committees, established by the parent chamber to investigate a specific matter, ceasing to exist when they have reported (though they are rarely used in the House). Whilst all have nominally the same remit—that of investigating the policy, administration, finances and legislation of the ministries within their competency (with the Senate legislative standing committees responsible for scrutinising bills and draft bills, estimates, annual reports and ‘performance’, and reference committees responsible for investigating other matters; Senate Standing Order 25[2])—the differences in the way their parent chamber operates have seen an informal division of labour emerge between them. Because committees do not generally have the power to initiate their own inquiries, they are reliant on references from the parent chamber.2 With the government by definition holding a majority in the House and party lines largely adhered to, house committees have tended to focus on prospective policy issues, perhaps in cooperation with the minister. Matters potentially embarrassing to the government are unlikely to be investigated.

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