IN COMMITTEE : A Question of Integrity

When a select committee reports back on any Bill, the first order of business is to inform the House whether or not it believes the proposed legislation should proceed. Most Bills that get the thumbs down are Members' Bills, which only survived their first reading in the House because MPs believed the issues involved deserved a public airing, not because anyone seriously believed they would ever pass into law. A current example of such a Bill is the one that would reduce the number of MPs in Parliament to 100. Government bills, by contrast, almost always survive the select committee stage; even if some of them do take a fair mauling and return to the House plastered with recommended amendments. A "this government Bill should not be passed" recommendation is rare indeed. Nevertheless it happened recently to something called the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill. The idea behind the Bill was to amend the Electoral Act 1993 in such a way as to ensure that MPs either stay with the party for whom they were elected or exit Parliament entirely.