Make a law: House of Representatives

Getting started

• Introduce the work of the House of Representatives to your students with this video.
• Choose an issue relevant to your students and to the curriculum, such as the amount of homework students are required to do. If you’d like to see the kinds of issues the Parliament has been discussing recently, look at Hansard or current media. If you need ideas, use one of our scripts in the toolkit.
• With students, develop a plan to address the issue, for example, to ban homework. This plan will be your bill.
• Write the name of the bill and its purpose on page one of the law-making script template, available in the toolkit. For example, write The 'No Homework Bill: A Bill for an Act to ban homework in all Australian schools'.
• Turn the classroom into a chamber by arranging chairs and tables into a horseshoe shape as indicated by the seating plan in the toolkit.

Activity (45 minutes)

1. Divide the class into government (more than half the students), minor parties and independents (2-3 students) and opposition (remaining students). For current composition of the House of Representatives, visit Parliamentary statistics. Explain that all students have been voted in by the people of their electorates, and that the team with the most people becomes the Government. When selecting roles in the next two steps, ensure that the government still has a majority.
2. For each team, select:
   • Prime Minister/Leader of the Opposition
   • Minister/Shadow Minister for the relevant portfolio
   • Party Whip – team manager
3. From the class, select:
   • Speaker – a member of the government
   • Clerk – Parliamentary staff
   • Serjeant-At-Arms – Parliamentary staff
4. To allow students to develop their arguments further, you may wish to allocate time for students to write their own speeches. This could take the form of a short ‘party room meeting’ where teams can discuss ideas and select people to speak.
   • Government members will support the bill
   • Opposition members will disagree with the bill
   • Independents and minor party members can choose to support, oppose or suggest changes to the bill.
5. Making a law. You can follow this process in the master script:
   • The Clerk rings the bell and instructs the members to stand.
   • The Serjeant-at-Arms leads the Speaker into the chamber, carrying the Mace on their right shoulder.
   • The Serjeant-at-Arms announces the Speaker, places the Mace on the table and moves to their seat.
   • The Speaker tells everyone to sit down and begins the session.
   • The Clerk stands and reads the rules of the chamber and the title of the bill (first reading).
   • The minister introduces the bill and the shadow minister responds to the bill.
   • The Speaker selects members to make speeches, alternating between government and non-government members.
   • When the debate is finished, the Speaker announces the vote. The independents and minor party members choose a side.
   • The whips count the number of people on their side and tell the Speaker. The Speaker declares the result.
   • The Clerk reads the title of the bill.
   • The Speaker adjourns the House.
   • The Serjeant-at-Arms takes the Mace and leads the Speaker from the chamber.
6. After considering the discussion questions, you may wish to get students to complete the Making a law in the House of Representatives worksheet.

Discussion questions

• What happened in your House of Representatives? Did the bill pass? Why?
• What other steps does the bill need to go through to become a law?

Extension

The scripts provided do not include vote 'on the voices'. Watching the supplementary video in the Teacher Toolkit, introduce the concept of the vote 'on the voices' prior to the formal division. Further information can be found in this fact sheet. 

During a debate on the bill, your students may have suggested some changes to the bill. These are called amendments and are often used in the Parliament when members want to improve a bill. If you would like your students to debate an amendment, follow these instructions.

1. Print the Amend a bill script.
2. When deciding on an amendment to debate, either select one that was suggested during the previous debate or help the class think of one. Ensure the students understand that an amendment cannot change the main intention of a bill.
3. Choose a student to give a speech to introduce the amendment explaining what the amendment is and how it will improve the bill.
4. Let the government and opposition meet as teams to decide whether they support the amendment. The minor party and independent members should also decide whether they will support the amendment. You may wish to give your students time to prepare speeches.
5. Use the Amend a bill script to run the debate, repeating the process if you have more than one amendment. If the amendment is agreed to, the bill has been changed.

• Bills and laws
• Parliament at work
• The House of Representatives
• Years 3+4
• Years 5+6
• Years 7+8
• Years 9+10