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e Parliamentary Library & Information Service Department of Parliamentary Services Parliament of Victoria Research Paper Independence of Parliament No. 3, May 2017 Jon Breukel Igor Dosen Caitlin Grover Bella Lesman Carolyn Macvean Helen Rosolen Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge the following for providing valuable insight and assistance in reviewing and editing this paper: Ray Purdey, Clerk of the Victorian Legislative Assembly; Andrew Young, Clerk of the Victorian Legislative Council; Peter Lochert, Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services; Dr Ken Coghill, Associate Professor, Monash University and former Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly; Dr Marco Bini, Executive Director, Governance, Legal and Strategy, Victorian Auditor-General's Office; Bill Stent and Dr Jeff Fang from the Parliament of Victoria’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee; Sean Coley and Matt Newington from the Parliament of Victoria’s Accountability and Oversight Committee; Dr Stephen James from the Parliament of Victoria’s IBAC Committee; Ross Burnside from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe); Richard Kelly from the Parliament and Constitution Centre, House of Commons, London; Matthew Purvis, Head of Research Services, Library, House of Lords, London; Scherie Nichol from OECD, Paris; Kristi Thompson, Research Librarian at the Canadian Parliament; Kim Dean, Research Librarian from the Legislative Library and Research Services, Legislative Assembly of Ontario; Daniel Weight from the Economics Branch at the Australian Parliamentary Library; Dr John Wilson from the New Zealand Parliamentary Library; Susan Walton and Lenny Roth from the NSW Parliamentary Library; Dr Ed Lock, Victoria University; Dr Bryan Stait, Parliamentary Research Service, Tasmanian Parliament; David Skinner, Director, Governance and Communications, Office of the Legislative Assembly, ACT Parliament; Susan George from the Queensland Parliamentary Library & Research Service; Kaye Henderson, Manager, Parliamentary Library Service, Northern Territory Parliament; Judy Ballantyne, Parliamentary Librarian, WA Parliament; Charu Saxena, Manager Budgets & Risks at the Victorian Parliament; and Rachel Macreadie, Caley Otter and Debra Reeves, researchers at the Victorian Parliamentary Library & Information Service. Notes In this paper the term ‘parliament’ is used to describe parliament(s) generally, while ‘Parliament’ refers either to a specific jurisdiction, or is used with the phrase ‘House(s) of Parliament’. ISSN 2204-4752 (Print) 2204-4760 (Online) © 2017 Parliamentary Library & Information Service, Parliament of Victoria Research Papers produced by the Parliamentary Library & Information Service, Department of Parliamentary Services, Parliament of Victoria are released under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs licence. By using this Creative Commons licence, you are free to share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work under the following conditions: . Attribution - You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non-Commercial - You may not use this work for commercial purposes without our permission. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work without our permission. The Creative Commons licence only applies to publications produced by the Library, Department of Parliamentary Services, Parliament of Victoria. All other material produced by the Parliament of Victoria is copyright. If you are unsure please contact us. Contents List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ 1 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 2 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Democracy ................................................................................................................................... 4 Early political theorists ................................................................................................................ 5 1.DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES .................................................................................................................... 7 Key principles ............................................................................................................................... 7 Separation of powers .................................................................................................................. 8 Independence of executive, legislature and judiciary ................................................................. 9 Parliament’s fundamental role of holding the executive to account .......................................... 9 Ministerial responsibility ..................................................................................................... 10 Financial accountability ....................................................................................................... 10 Parliamentary privilege and exclusive cognisance .................................................................... 11 Latimer House Principles ........................................................................................................... 13 2. INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY ................................................................................................... 15 Judicial independence and the separation of powers ............................................................... 15 Independence from the legislature ........................................................................................... 16 Court funding ............................................................................................................................. 17 Executive model ................................................................................................................... 17 Judicial Council model ......................................................................................................... 18 3. INDEPENDENT OFFICERS OF PARLIAMENT........................................................................................ 19 Auditor-General ......................................................................................................................... 21 Ombudsman .............................................................................................................................. 22 Electoral Commissioner ............................................................................................................. 23 IBAC Commissioner ................................................................................................................... 24 Victorian Inspectorate ............................................................................................................... 24 Parliamentary Budget Officer .................................................................................................... 25 4. FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE OF PARLIAMENT - REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .................................. 27 Parliamentary funding ............................................................................................................... 27 Parliamentary committees ........................................................................................................ 29 Financial independence ............................................................................................................. 30 Parliamentary corporate bodies ................................................................................................ 32 5. AUSTRALIAN JURISDICTIONS ............................................................................................................. 34 Victoria ...................................................................................................................................... 34 Purchaser-provider model ................................................................................................... 35 Financial Management Compliance Framework ................................................................. 37 Office of the Opposition ...................................................................................................... 38 Australian Capital Territory ....................................................................................................... 39 New South Wales ...................................................................................................................... 40 Queensland ................................................................................................................................ 42 South Australia .......................................................................................................................... 43 Western Australia ...................................................................................................................... 43 Tasmania .................................................................................................................................... 44 Northern Territory ..................................................................................................................... 45