Parliamentarian Participation Requirement Act 2017

A Bill for an Act to ensure that those elected to the Australian Parliament actively participate, and to provide means to replace those who are inactive without leave.

Part 1 - Preliminary

1 Short Title

This Act may be cited as the Parliamentarian Participation Requirement Act 2017.

2 Commencement

This Act commences on the day it receives Royal Assent.

3 Definitions

Elected representatives means an elected and sitting member of the AustraliaSim Senate or the AustraliaSim House of Representatives.

Judiciary means a member of the High Court of AustraliaSim.

Official business means any item before any chamber of Parliament that requires a vote.

Chair means the Speaker of the AustraliaSim House of Representatives, the President of the AustraliaSim Senate, or any valid designate.

Vote means to declare that you vote for, against or abstain on any official business.

4 Constitutional legality of Act

This Act draws on the rights conferred by Parliament in section 38 of the AustraliaSim Constitution to regulate vacancy by absence issues.

5 Repeal of previous iterations of Senator and Member Participation Requirement Act 2017

For the avoidance of any doubt, the Senator and Member Participation Requirement Act 2017, prior to this Act, is repealed.

Part 2 - Participation Requirements and Consequences

4 Expectations and procedures for suspected non-voting elected representatives etc.

In this section, determination is when the Judiciary decides on a course of action given in subsection (4).

1) Elected representatives must vote on any official business before any chamber of the AustraliaSim Parliament.
2) An elected representative may excuse themselves from (1) if the Speaker of the House of Representatives or the President of the Senate exempts them from doing so.
3) An elected representative who has not been excused under (2), and has failed to vote at least 10 times consecutively, or failed to vote in at least 5 consecutive days, must be referred to the Judiciary by the relevant Chair.
4) The Judiciary must determine whether:
a) To expel the elected representative;
b) Warn the elected representative; or
c) Take no action.
5) The Judiciary must begin to consider official referrals within 48 hours, and provide a determination within 72 hours of the commencement of consideration.
6) The Judiciary, subject to statute or any other law, may request any information that is relevant and that the Judiciary feels will assist them in providing a determination.
a) For the avoidance of any doubt, the Judiciary may consider the fact of whether an elected representative has voted or failed to vote for any official business in the chamber between the notice of referral and the handing down of the determination.
7) If a person ceases to be an elected representative per subsection 4(a), a new elective representative shall be chosen per the procedure outlined in the AustraliaSim Constitution.
8) Nothing within this section prevents the Chair from referring the elected representative as many times as required.
9) As a limiting restriction on subsection (8), the Chair may only refer the elected representative once the amount of votes missed has increased from the time in which the Judiciary made a determination.