Make a law: Senate

Getting started

• Introduce the work of the Senate 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’re stuck for 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 minor party and independent senators (a third of your class), government (a third of your class) and opposition (a third of your class). Explain that all students have been voted in by the people of their state or territory. For the current composition of the Senate, visit Parliamentary statistics.
2. For each team, select:
   • A Leader of the Government/Opposition in the Senate
   • Minister/Shadow Minister for the relevant portfolio
   • Party Whip – team manager
3. From the class, select:
   • President – a government senator
   • Clerk – parliamentary staff
   • Usher of the Black Rod – 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 senators will support the bill
   • Opposition senators will disagree with the bill
   • Independents and minor party senators 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 senators to stand.
   • The Usher leads the President into the chamber, carrying the Black Rod
   • The Usher announces the President and moves to their seat.
   • The President 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 President selects senators to make speeches, alternating between government and non-government senators.
   • When the debate is finished, the President announces the vote. The independents and minor party senators choose a side.
   • The whips count the number of people on their side and tell the President. The President declares the result.
   • If the bill is agreed to, the Clerk reads the title of the bill again (second reading). If the bill is not agreed to, skip this step.
   • The President adjourns the Senate.
   • The Usher takes the Black Rod and leads the President from the chamber.

Discussion questions

• What happened in your Senate? Did the bill pass? Why or why not?
• 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. 

After your bill has passed the Senate, you may like to continue the debate in the House of Representatives.

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 senators 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 senators 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 Senate
• Years 3+4
• Years 5+6
• Years 7+8
• Years 9+10