Select Committee on Constitutional Amendment Bills (18th Parliament)
Members
Hon Aloysius Amwano MP, Chairman
Hon Baron Waqa MP, Deputy Chairman
Hon Dr Kieren Keke MP
Hon Freddie Pitcher MP
Hon Roland Kun MP
Hon Mathew Batsiua MP
Hon Godfrey Thoma MP
Hon Dominic Tabuna MP
Hon Landon Deireragea MP
Establishment
The Select Committee on Constitutional Amendment Bills was
established by a resolution of Parliament passed on 18 December
2008.
Work of Committee
The Select Committee on Constitutional Amendment Bills was a
Committee made up of nine members of Parliament, and was created by
a resolution of Parliament. The work of the Committee was part of
step 5 of the Constitutional Review Process.
The Committee was given the task of looking at all the material
from the constitutional review process so far, and recommending to
Parliament whether anything in the constitutional amendment bills
should be changed.
The Committee was created in December 2008 and it did its work in
January, February and March 2009. On 10th March 2009 the Committee
presented its report to Parliament. The Report explains the work of
the Committee, and the recommendations of the Committee. The
Committee has now fulfilled its terms of reference and completed
its work.
The reason that Parliament established the Select Committee on
Constitutional Amendment Bills, when Parliament already has a
Standing Committee on Constitutional Review (the 'CRC'), is that
bills cannot be referred to a Standing Committee, but only to a
Select Committee.
The Report and recommendations of the Select Committee on
Constitutional Amendment Bills were considered by the Committee of
the Whole House in June 2009, and following the Report of the COTW
on the Constitutional Amendment Bills as amended, Parliament
unanimously passed the two constitutional amendment bills on 21
August 2009. For more information on the passage of the bills, see
the Constitutional Review Process.
Committee of the Whole House
The Committee of the Whole House comprises every Member of
Parliament, sitting as a Committee to consider the details of
a Bill, or to consider a specific task assigned to it by a
resolution of the House. Standing Order 162 provides that
after adoption of the motion for the second reading of a
Bill, the House must resolve itself into a Committee of the
Whole for consideration of the Bill unless a decision is taken to
refer the Bill to a Select Committee or the House grants
leave to proceed directly to the third reading. In practice,
leave is usually granted for the third reading to proceed. In
the case of the constitutional amendment bills however, the House
resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole to consider
the Bills in detail and to amend the Bills. The Reports of
the Committee of the Whole on the constitutional amendment bills
are listed in Links & Resources.