Comparative between the Australian and the Saudi Parliaments - Essay Example

Comparative between the Australian and the Saudi Parliaments Name Instructor Course Date A parliament is a congregation of elected representatives of a nation or a people that form the supreme law-making (legislative) authority for that nation or people. The basic parliamentary concepts of assembly, legislation and representation date back thousands of years. Many ancient civilizations had leaders gathering to deliberate and decide on matters of importance to their communities. As early as 2500 BC, evidence shows that citizens’ assemblies were held in Mesopotamia. Elements of the modern style of parliament were, however, first demonstrated in ancient Greece and Rome. The word parliament was derived from the French word parle, which means ‘to talk’.1 The Australian parliament is officially referred to as The Parliament of the Commonwealth but commonly as Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament. To the Australian government, the Commonwealth Parliament is the legislative branch. It consists of three important elements: The queen of Australia, the senate (Upper House) and the House of Representatives (Lower House).2 Normally the queen is represented in Australia by the Governor-General. Australia is a parliamentary democracy as well as a constitutional monarchy and with a parliamentary system of government. The Parliament of the Commonwealth, thus, consists of two elected houses. The senate is composed of representatives for the six original states and the main two of the self-governing territories. The six states always have the same number of senators each regardless of population. The House of Representatives is composed of members representing electoral divisions, which are normally according to population. The Australian parliament was modeled after the United States Congress. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with the king wielding substantive executive, legislative and judicial powers. There is, therefore, no elected parliament in Saudi Arabia. However, the close equivalent of a parliament is the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia, a formal legislative advisory body to the king of Saudi Arabia. It is also known as the Shura Council (Majis as-Shura in Arabic). The powers of the consultative assembly in government are limited, and only include the power to debate and propose laws and amendments to the existing laws, to the king and his cabinet. The assembly can neither pass nor enforce laws.3 Such powers are reserved for the king, who is also the appointing authority for all the members of the consultative assembly. Historically, Prince George, the Duke of Cornwall and York who later became King George V, opened the Commonwealth Parliament on May 9, 1901 AD in Melbourne, Victoria. Australia had come into existence as one nation in January 1, 1901. Previously, Australia consisted of six British colonies which were partly governed independently, but were under the British parliament’s legislative power. Representatives from all the six colonies came together during the 1890s in special meetings referred to as constitution conventions. The conventions drafted a constitution that would unite the six colonies into one nation, with a new level of government. A draft constitution that would give rise to the Parliament of the Commonwealth was formed and agreed upon in 1898. It was taken to each of the six colonial parliaments for approval. Referenda were held in the colonies between June 1899 and July the following year for the people to approve the draft constitution. After the people of Australia approved the draft constitution, by the British parliament had to approve it as well before federation of the colonies. A bill on the same was presented to the British parliament by a delegation from Australia. The bill was passed in July 1900 after The British parliament negotiated some changes to the constitution. On July 9, 1900 a bill was approved by Queen Victoria becoming the Commonwealth of Australia Constitutional Act 1900. On January 1, 1901 section 9 of the act provided the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia from the union of five colonies: Queensland, Victoria, South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania. It also provided for the joining of Western Australia which had not held a referendum on the draft constitution. It later joined the federation after a referendum conducted on July 31, 1900.4 On the other hand, the Saudi consultative assembly was founded in January 13, 1926 by King Abdul-Aziz, who chose Prince Faisal, his son as the first chair of the assembly. It took six years for the finalization to institutionalize the assembly which was achieved in 1932. It started with ten members. The membership was expanded to twenty five in 1953 during the commencement of King Saud’s reign. Subsequently, political pressures from members of the royal family forced the king to transfer the functions of the assembly to his cabinet ministers and hence the assembly went underground for many years. It however remained in un-dissolved officially but was ineffective until the year 2000 when King Fahd revived it fully. Assembly sittings had resumed in 1993. In November 24, 2000 a new set of laws to govern the consultative assembly were decreed by King Fahd. The laws effectively replaced the operational laws that had been governing the work assembly since 1928. They also replaced decreed by-laws and their supplements that had been in operation since August 22, 1993. The first council since its revival served between 1993 and 1997 and had 60 members and a speaker. Membership of the assembly grew in the subsequent terms to 90 between 1997 and 2001, 120 between 2001 and 2005 and 150 between 2005 and 2009. The number has remained at 150 and a speaker to date. After the expansion in membership and the increased powers that the assembly has since 2000, it earned membership to the International Parliamentary Union towards the end of 2003. The head of the consultative assembly is the speaker, often from the ash-Sheikh family which is a member of the expansive royal family. The tradition has been maintained since the inception of the house. The membership of the assembly seems to be drawn representatively from the provinces and represent three important groups: the business groups, bureaucracy and religious establishment. The members seem to be proponents of either liberal or conservative ideologies and are often highly educated with vast experience that makes them experts in various fields.5 Mostly members of the council have been businessmen, ex-civil servants, retired senior officers and academics. Of the current 150 members, 105 have attained Ph. D., twelve are engineers, four are religious leaders, 25 have masters degrees and the remaining four are from the military.6 The consultative assembly sits in Riyadh at the Al Yamamah palace. During the inception of the Australian parliament in 1901, the ceremony took place in the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, which was the only building that could accommodate the 14000 guests in attendance. Thereafter, between 1901 and 1927 the parliament held house sessions in the Victoria State’s Parliament House still in Melbourne; while the state parliament held its sessions in the Royal Exhibition Building. It had been intended for the Australian national parliament to sit in the new national capital of Canberra. The parliamentary sessions were moved to Canberra on May 9, 1927 in what is now the Old Parliament House. Even though the building was to house parliament temporarily, the sessions continued to be held there for more than 60 years until 1988 when Queen Elizabeth II opened the current permanent Parliament House on May 9, 1988. Currently, the Australian senate has 76 members: Each of the six states has 12 members each while the Australian Capital and the Northern Territory have two senators each. The election of senators follows the proportional voting pattern, which means each state has to be equally represented. The number of senators per states may be adjusted proportionally by parliament provided each of six original states is represented by a minimum of six senators each. Until 1949, six senators represented each of the original states. The number increased during the 1949 elections to 10 and has been at 12 since the elections of 1984.4 Constitutionally, the provisions exclude newly admitted states or territories. An act of parliament enacted in 1973 provided the election of senators to represent territories but with the exclusion of the Norfolk Island. The two senators from the Northern Territory represent Australian external territories of the Keeling and Christmas islands in addition to the Northern Territory. Meanwhile, the two senators for the Australian Capital Territory also represent Jervis bay Territory. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has 150 members currently. Each member represents an electoral division known as a district. Membership in the house is not fixed. It varies regularly with changes in district boundaries which are regularly adjusted due to electoral redistributions. The most noticeable surge in the number of representatives occurred in 1984, when the number increased to 148 from 125. The members reduced by one in the 1993 election, then returned to 148 during the 1996 elections. It has been constant at 150 since the 2001 elections. The sessions of the two houses are held in the Australian Capital Territory in separate chambers of the Parliament house in Canberra. Women representatives in parliament have been relatively few both in Australia and Saudi Arabia. Until 2013, the members of the consultative assembly in Saudi Arabia were purely men appointed by the King. Prior to the municipal elections of 2011, King Abdullah hinted that women may be appointed into the consultative assembly. This came into effect in January 2013 when the king issued royal decrees that guaranteed women at least 30 seats in the assembly. The decrees stated that a minimum of one fifth of the seats in the consultative assembly will be reserved for women.7 The decrees had conditions that such women would be required to fulfill. The women to be appointed to the consultative assembly had to be strict adherents of the Sharia law without any violations and had to always dress in religious veil. The female members of the assembly are required by the decrees to use special gates while entering the assembly, to sit in special seats reserved for them and to use special worshipping places for prayer. In the consultative assembly sessions, men are separated from the women by a screen. The house communicates using an installed communication network that allows every member make their contributions. The first thirty women joined the consultative assembly in 2013 with two among them coming from the royal family. The women were accorded full membership with three of them being appointed to be deputy chairpersons of the assembly’s committees. Women were first elected to the Australian parliament in 1943. Female representation in parliament remained below 5 per cent in the following years until 1980. The numbers have slowly increased to the current 30.5 per cent. The House of Representative has 26.7 percent representation by women while the senate has 38.2 per cent representation. Over the last decade, the international ranking of women in parliaments has seen Australia comparatively decline from position 20 in 2001 to position 48 currently. There has been a lot of research conducted on the issue of representation by Australian women in parliament. There is no agreement on the issues that cause underrepresentation of women in the Australian parliamentary democracy system. However, a number of factors have been cited as the likely inhibitors to women’s political participation in Australia. The issues are outlined as party practices when conducting selection of candidates the nature of the Australian electoral system, the responsibilities taken up by women in the family make it difficult for most of them to balance between work and family, women in politics are often viewed discriminatorily, and the harsh nature of the Australian parliamentary environment.8 The main function of parliaments is legislation. The functions of the Saudi consultative assembly include proposing draft laws, which are then forwarded to the king to either enforce or pass them. The assembly is mandated to interpret laws and examine annual reports from government agencies and state ministries. The king also relies on the assembly for advice on policies, economic plans and international treaties. In addition, it has the authority to summon state ministers for questioning as well as reviewing of the annual budget for the country which has to be in line with the five-year plan of the kingdom. The influence to hold policy debate forums and summon state ministers is mostly because the assembly is charged with the five-year plan from which annual budgets and government policies are derived. The Australian parliament is a very integral part of the national government. The functions of parliament include providing for the formation of government after a general election, providing a platform for representation of the people in governance, legislation, providing the funds needed by the government and scrutinizing government actions and appropriation of national resources. Bills (proposed laws) become acts of parliament after they are debated by both houses and then the governor-General has to assent to it. The bills are normally introduced in either of the houses with the exception of those relating to taxation and revenue. Such bills can only be introduced in the House of Representatives. The parliament as well as the people of Australia is involved whenever a law involves changes to the constitution. An agreement on such laws must be reached by both houses failure to which the people are required to vote on the law in a referendum after the proposal is presented by the Governor-General. In such a case, the law goes through if a majority of the voters from the entire country and a majority of the states, vote in its favor.9 Both the Saudi Arabian consultative assembly and the Australian parliament conduct house business in either sessions of the whole house or in specialized committees that address specific issues. The committees debate draft bills, take evidence from the people and industry players and question public servants. The Australian parliament also has joint committees which are constituted by members from both the senate and the House of Representatives. The committees of the senate include appropriations and staffing, community affairs, economics, education and employment, environment and communications, finance and public administration committee, defense, foreign affairs and trade committee, legal and constitutional affairs committee, privileges, procedure, publications, regulations and ordinances committee, transport, rural and regional affairs committee, selection of bills committee, scrutiny of bills committee, senators’ interests committee and a select committee on national broadband network. The committees of the House of Representatives include agriculture and industry, education and employment, appropriations and administration, privileges and members’ interests, health, indigenous affairs, economics, environment, health, indigenous affairs, infrastructure and communications, petitions, privileges and members’ interests, publications, procedure, selection, tax and revenue and social policy and legal affairs committee. There are also joint committees whose memberships are drawn from both houses. They include the Australian commission for law enforcement and integrity, corporations and financial services committee, parliamentary proceedings and broadcasting, electoral matters committee, defense, foreign affairs and trade committee, human rights, migration, intelligence and security, national capital, law enforcement and external territories, parliamentary library, treaties, public works and publications committee. The Saudi consultative assembly has twelve committees which include judicial, Islamic affairs and human rights committee, youth, family and social affairs committee, energy and economic affairs committee, security affairs committee, scientific research and educational affairs committee, information and cultural affairs committee, foreign affairs committee, environment and health affairs committee, financial affairs committee, communications, transport and information technology committee, water and public services committee, and human resources, petitions and administration committee. Since 2012, the consultative assembly has had women advisors to offer guidance on issues that regard family, women and children.10 The voting in the Australian Parliament is normally done by acclamation after debate on bills. Electronic voting is used whenever there is no clear winner in the acclamation. In the Saudi consultative assembly, members vote electronically. There are few such incidences. Both parliaments are the legislative arms of their respective governments. The Saudi assembly is ceremonial and mainly an advisor to the king, while the Australian parliament is a very crucial component in the governance and is at the heart of government. Bibliography Aba-Namay, Rashed, ‘The Saudi Representative Assembly’ (2008) 5 Islamic Law and Society, 2 Carson, Lyn, 2013, the Australian Citizens' Parliament and the Future of Deliberative Democracy (University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013) Cordesman, Anthony, Saudi Arabia Enters the 21st Century: Politics and Internal Stability (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2004) Crawford, Maiden, ‘Where are the women MPs?’ (Spring 2013) 7, Australasian Parliamentary Review, 28 Kapiszewski, Andrzej, ‘Saudi Arabia: Steps towards Democratization or Reconfiguration of Authoritarianism?’ (2013) 9, Journal of African and Asian Studies 41 Pini, Brown, ‘Gender Equality in National Politics: The Views of Australian Male Politicians’ (2010) 7, Australian Journal of Political Science, 45 Porter, Jennifer, ‘State parliaments' departure from the practice of standing orders: the evolution of Australian parliamentary practice’ (2014) 1 Australian Journal of Political Science, 14 Rundell, David, Saudi consultative Council Dominated by US-Educated Experts (Oxford University Press, 2012). Zaid, Mohammad, The foreign Policy of King Abdullah (Leeds University Press, 2013) Williams, George, Australian Constitutional Law and Theory: Commentary and Materials (Federation Press, 6th Ed, 2011) Read More