Legislative Council of New Zealand
The Legislative Council of New Zealand was the upper house of the New Zealand Parliament from 1853 to 1951 . In contrast to the elected lower house , the New Zealand House of Representatives , it was appointed.
The Legislative Council was intended to be a revision chamber to review and amend the laws passed by the House of Representatives. He was unable to propose bills himself and was not allowed to change Money Bills (laws that related to government funding and spending). The model for this role was the House of Lords in the United Kingdom.
Members
The New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 created the legal basis for a Legislative Council whose members are appointed for life by the governor . As the governor's political power gradually declined, it became common for appointments to be made on the recommendation of the prime minister (later prime minister), which in effect meant that the members were chosen by the government in power.
However, since the appointment was for life, the distribution of power in the Legislative Council only changed with a significant delay after changes in the House of Representatives - the premiers were often hindered in their actions by a Legislative Council appointed by their predecessors. In 1891 the term of office was therefore reduced to 7 years. The motivation of the new government of the Liberal Party under John Ballance was perhaps ideological, but in part undoubtedly political: Ballance's conservative predecessor Harry Atkinson filled the council with conservatives shortly before he left office. Ballance had considerable difficulty getting this reform through. Above all, there were arguments between Ballance and the incumbent governor. Ballance's victory can be seen as an important precedent for the governor-prime minister relationship.
The structure of the Legislative Council until 1891 was similar to that of the Canadian Senate , which is still an appointed House of Lords today, but members must resign at the age of 75 for reasons of age.
The Constitution Act 1852 set the number of members at least ten. Although not part of the law, there were instructions that it should not exceed fifteen. One member was appointed as Speaker of the Legislative Council , which in his function was roughly the counterpart to the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the lower house. A quorum of five members was established. The first thirteen appointments were made in 1853. Gradually, the maximum number of members was increased and finally the limit was completely abolished. The chamber therefore had up to 45 members.
The distribution of seats in the Legislative Council was less representative of the New Zealand population than in the elected parliament. Women could not be appointed until 1941 (despite New Zealand's pioneering role in women's suffrage worldwide), the first woman came to the council in 1946, and only five women were appointed in total. Māori were slightly better represented - the first Māori was appointed in 1872 and not long after the Māori Seats were created in the House of Commons it became the rule that Māori should always sit on the council.
Proposals for an elected House of Lords
There were several proposals that resulted in the election of members of the Legislative Council. When New Zealand was released into self-government at the beginning of the Second New Zealand Parliament ( Responsible Gouvernement ), Governor Thomas Gore Browne was given sufficient powers to make the Legislative Council elected, but no steps were taken in that direction. In 1914 the Liberals made a legislative proposal that a council of 42 or 43 members should be elected for 6 years by proportional representation, but implementation was delayed because of the First World War . In 1920 the reform party, now in power, no longer favored the idea. The 1914 law, however, continued to hang over the appointed council like a sword of Damocles that could be used by any subsequent government at any time.
abolition
In the mid-20th century, the Legislative Council was increasingly viewed as inefficient and had little influence on the legislative process. He waved the laws passed by parliament through mostly unchanged. Some advocated a reform of the upper house, others for its abolition, including the leader of the National Party , Sidney Holland . In 1947, as a single member of parliament, he brought in a Private Member's Bill with the aim of abolishing the House of Lords.
However, Parliament could not change the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 . This was a law of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, not New Zealand, and did not provide for any change by the New Zealand Parliament to any part of the law that affected the Legislative Council. To do this, a legislature independent of the United Kingdom must first be created through the adoption of the Westminster Statute . This was done with the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947 . The New Zealand Parliament then passed the New Zealand Constitution Amendment (Request and Consent) Act 1947 and the British Parliament passed the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1947 . These allowed the New Zealand Parliament to change the constitution and abolish the Legislative Council. The Labor government was unable to implement the abolition after losing the 1949 elections.
In 1950 the National Party passed the Legislative Council Abolition Act . To get the law through, Prime Minister Holland appointed twenty members known as the Suicide Squad to the Legislative Council to vote for their own abolition. Among them were former MPs Harold Dickie and Garnet Mackley . The Australian state of Queensland abolished its House of Lords in the same way in 1922. In order to win the cooperation of other members, Holland promised to use the funds freed up with the abolition to support the resigned members. Although the abolition was designed as a temporary measure, the New Zealand government remains a unicameral system to this day.
At times there was a Statutes Revision Committee , which was supposed to perform part of the Legislative Council's auditing tasks.
Reintroduction proposals
One-chamber system advocates such as former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer argued that a small and relatively homogeneous state like New Zealand does not need the same facilities as states like Australia or Canada, although many smaller countries have retained their bicameral systems. Other political reforms, such as the strengthening of the Select Committee system (which is based on cross-party working groups of parliamentarians to deal with factual issues) and the introduction of proportional representation for parliament, ensure political balance.
Support for a bicameral system has not died down completely, however, and proposals to reintroduce a House of Lords have occasionally been tabled in parliament. A constitutional reform committee led by Ronald Algie proposed an appointed Senate in 1952. The government of Jim Bolger also proposed an appointed Senate in 1990, partly as an alternative to an upcoming reform of the electoral law in New Zealand.
Chamber of the Legislative Council
The session room of the Legislative Council, the Legislative Council Chamber , is still used today for the speech from the throne , as according to British tradition, the monarch is not allowed to enter the lower house. The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod summons the House of Representatives for the opening of Parliament in the Legislative Council Chamber . The address is usually not given by the monarch himself, but by the governor general as his representative.
literature
- WK Jackson: The New Zealand Legislative Council: A Study of the Establishment, Failure and Abolition of an Upper House. University of Otago Press, Dunedin 1972.
- AH McLintock, GA Wood: The Upper House in colonial New Zealand: A study of the Legislative Council of New Zealand in the period 1854 - 1887 Government Printer, Wellington 1987.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Remained like a sword of Damocles suspended above the nominated upper house, available at will or whim to any succeeding government" (Jackson)
- ↑ Edited by Stephen Levine with Paul Harris: Part I - The Constitution . In: The New Zealand Politics Source Book . Dunmore Press , ISBN 0864693389 .