Federation Chamber
The Federation Chamber, formerly the Main Committee, is a second debating chamber that considers relatively uncontroversial matters. These can be referred by the entire House to the Federation Chamber, where substantive debate can take place. The Federation Chamber cannot, however, initiate nor make a final decision on any parliamentary business, although it can perform all tasks in between.
The Federation Chamber was created in 1994, to relieve some of the burden of the entire House: different matters can be processed in the House at large and in the Federation Chamber, as they sit simultaneously. It is designed to be less formal, with a quorum of only three members: the Deputy Speaker of the House, one government member, and one non-government member. Decisions must be unanimous: any divided decision sends the question back to the House at large.
The Federation Chamber was created through the House's Standing Orders: it is thus a subordinate body of the House, and can only be in session while the House itself is in session. When a division vote in the House occurs, members in the Federation Chamber must return to the House to vote.
The Federation Chamber is housed in one of the House's committee rooms; the room is customised for this purpose and is laid out to resemble the House chamber.
Due to the unique role of what was then called the Main Committee, proposals were made to rename the body to avoid confusion with other parliamentary committees, including include "Second Chamber" and "Federation Chamber". The House of Representatives later adopted the latter proposal.
The concept of a parallel body to expedite Parliamentary business, based on the Australian Federation Chamber, was mentioned in a 1998 British House of Commons report, which led to the creation of that body's parallel chamber Westminster Hall.
Read more about this topic: House Of Representatives (Australia)
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