Submission to Inquiry into the exemption of delegated legislation from parliamentary oversight

PIAC’s approach to the question of exempting delegated legislation from oversight is based on four principles:

• Delegated legislation should not be used too often
• Substantive issues should be considered by Parliament
• Use of delegated legislation should be adequately justified, and
• Clear and transparent processes should be adopted.

The amount of delegated legislation, and specifically the amount of delegated legislation that is exempted from parliamentary oversight, was growing pre-COVID-19 and that this growth has only continued since.

In this context, we recommend that the Legislation Act 2003 (Cth) be amended to ensure that any exemption from parliamentary oversight must be contained in primary legislation (rather than authorised by delegated legislation itself), as well as publishing clear guidance on the limited circumstances in which exemption may be permitted.