§ 259. “Disagreement Between the Houses.”
This section provides several distinct and successive stages in the procedure by which a disagreement may be determined. The first stage is the rejection or failure by the Senate to pass a bill proposed by the House of Representatives; then succeeds an interval of three months for consideration and possible compromise; next, if there is no amicable settlement, the House again passes the bill, with or without amendments; if the Senate rejects, or fails to pass it a second time, the Governor-General may dissolve both Houses simultaneously; if, after the double dissolution, the House of Representatives again passes the proposed law, and the Senate rejects it for the third time, the Governor-General may convene a joint sitting of the whole of the members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives. At this joint sitting the members present may deliberate and vote together upon the proposed law, and upon amendments previously proposed thereto.
The debates in the Convention, on the question what provision should be made in the Constitution for the settlement of deadlocks, were prolonged and exhaustive, and second to none in interest. A sketch of those debates will be found in the Historical Introduction, and here we must content ourselves with presenting a brief analysis of the section, as it now stands, representing as it does the matured thought of the Convention, subsequently modified in one matter of detail by the Conference of Premiers and approved by the People.
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