The Financial Initiative of the Crown and Private Members’ Bills in Queensland

Abstract

The convention of the financial initiative of the Crown has recently been applied by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland to deny to private members the ability to introduce, and have considered by the assembly, Bills that deal with appropriations or revenue. In this paper, I examine historical and recent practice to demonstrate that Queensland has a mixed record of practice in relation to both appropriation and revenue Bills. Drawing on reforms from Canada and New Zealand, I propose that appropriation and revenue Bills introduced by private members could be ruled out of order at a later stage in the legislative process to better balance the rights of members against the executive’s right to control public finances.