{"id":"BILL-r7322","name":"Parliamentary Business Resources Legislation Amendment (Machinery of Government Change) Bill 2025","slug":"parliamentary-business-resources-legislation-amendment-machinery-of-government-change-bill-2025","collection":"bill","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":446065,"registerId":"commonwealth-BILL-r7322-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-05-05","status":"royal_assent","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"retrieval-0001","sectionType":"document_chunk","heading":"Document excerpt 1","content":"# Parliamentary Business Resources Legislation Amendment (Machinery of Government Change) Bill 2025\n\nSource: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7322\n\n## APH summary\n\nSummary\n\nAmends the Parliamentary Business Resources Legislation Amendment (Review Implementation and Other Measures) Act 2024 to delay the transfer of the administration of certain parliamentary resources from the Department of Finance to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority by 12 months, from 1 July 2025 to 1 July 2026.\n\n## Parliamentary progress\n\nProgress\n\nHouse of Representatives\n\nIntroduced and read a first time\n\n25 Mar 2025\n\nSecond reading moved\n\n25 Mar 2025\n\nSecond reading agreed to\n\n25 Mar 2025\n\nThird reading agreed to\n\n25 Mar 2025\n\nSenate\n\nIntroduced and read a first time\n\n26 Mar 2025\n\nSecond reading moved\n\n26 Mar 2025\n\nSecond reading agreed to\n\n26 Mar 2025\n\nThird reading agreed to\n\n26 Mar 2025\n\nFinally passed both Houses\n\n26 Mar 2025\n\nAssent\n\nAct no: 24\n\nYear: 2025\n\n27 Mar 2025\n\n## Notes\n\nDocuments and transcripts\n\nText of bill\n\nFirst reading\n\nAs passed by both Houses\n\nExplanatory memoranda\n\nExplanatory memorandum\n\nTranscript of speeches\n\nAll second reading speeches\n\nMinister's second reading speech\n\nProposed amendments\n\nNo proposed amendments have been circulated.\n\nSchedules of amendments\n\nNo documents at present\nNotes\n\nAn electronic version of this Act is available on the Federal Register of Legislation (www.legislation.gov.au)\n\n## Official APH document links\n\n- First reading: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fbills%2Fr7322_first-reps%2F0000%22;rec=0\n- As passed by both Houses: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22legislation/bills/r7322_aspassed/0000%22\n- Explanatory memorandum: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fems%2Fr7322_ems_5c654912-9446-4f58-a80d-de24d3580aff%22\n- All second reading speeches: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result/Second_Reading_Speeches?BillId=r7322\n- Minister's second reading speech: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F28772%2F0045%22\n- www.legislation.gov.au: https://www.legislation.gov.au\n\n## Enacted Act text\n\nSource: https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2025A00024/latest/text\n\nParliamentary Business Resources Legislation Amendment (Machinery of Government Change) Act 2025\n\nNo. 24, 2025\n\nAn Act to amend the commencement of certain amendments of the law relating to the provision of resources to or in relation to persons who are, were or will be members of the Parliament, and for related purposes\n\nContents\n\n1\tShort title\t2\n\n2\tCommencement\t2\n\n3\tSchedules\t2\n\nSchedule 1,Amendments\t3\n\nParliamentary Business Resources Legislation Amendment (Review Implementation and Other Measures) Act 2024\t3\n\nParliamentary Business Resources Legislation Amendment (Machinery of Government Change) Act 2025\n\nNo. 24, 2025\n\nAn Act to amend the commencement of certain amendments of the law relating to the provision of resources to or in relation to persons who are, were or will be members of the Parliament, and for related purposes\n\n[Assented to 27 March 2025]\n\nThe Parliament of Australia enacts:\n\n1 Short title\n\nThis Act is the Parliamentary Business Resources Legislation Amendment (Machinery of Government Change) Act 2025.\n\n2 Commencement\n\n(1)\tEach provision of this Act specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.\n\nCommencement information\n\nColumn 1\n\nColumn 2\n\nColumn 3\n\nProvisions\n\nCommencement\n\nDate/Details\n\n1. The whole of the Act\n\nThe day after this Act receives the Royal Assent.\n\n28 March 2025\n\nNote:\tThis table relates only to the provisions of this Act as originally enacted. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this Act.\n\n(2)\tAny information in column 3 of the table is not part of this Act. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this Act.\n\n3 Schedules\n\nLegislation that is specified in a Schedule to this Act is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this Act has effect according to its terms.\n\nSchedule 1,Amendments\n\nParliamentary Business Resources Legislation Amendment (Review Implementation and Other Measures) Act 2024\n\n1 Subsection 2(1) (table item 2, column 2)\n\nOmit “2025”, substitute “2026”.\n\n2 Schedule 1 (heading)\n\nOmit “2025”, substitute “2026”.\n\n[Minister’s second reading speech made in,\n\nHouse of Representatives on 25 March 2025\n\nSenate on 26 March 2025]\n\n(24/25)","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"summary":{"status_summary":"The bill received royal assent on 27 March 2025, becoming Act No. 24 of 2025.","complexity_score":1,"likely_questions":["What is the new date for the transfer of parliamentary resource administration?","Does this bill change any rules about parliamentary expenses?"],"complexity_factors":["simple amendment to commencement date","limited scope affecting only timing of administrative transfer"],"plain_english_summary":"This Act delays the transfer of administrative responsibility for parliamentary business resources from the Department of Finance to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, moving the handover from 1 July 2025 to 1 July 2026. MPs, former MPs and their staff will continue to deal with Finance for these resources during the extra year.\n\nNo substantive changes to eligibility or resource rules are made. The Act received royal assent on 27 March 2025 (Act No. 24 of 2025) and took effect the day after assent."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act does not change the subject-matter or reach of the earlier legislation; it only delays the commencement date of the planned transfer by 12 months. There is no expansion of functions, powers, eligibility criteria or funding—only a temporal shift in implementation."},"complexity_factors":["Very short Act (three substantive clauses plus a two-item Schedule)","Only two textual substitutions (replace '2025' with '2026')","No new defined terms, no new offences, no new powers or duties","Minimal cross-referencing — amendments operate only on a specified 2024 Act provision and its Schedule heading","Low conditionality and no nested exceptions"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this Act does (in one line)**\n\n- The Act pushes back by 12 months the date when responsibility for certain parliamentary support resources moves from the Department of Finance to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA). The transfer was due to happen on 1 July 2025; the Act makes it occur on 1 July 2026 instead.\n\n**How it does that (mechanics)**\n\n- It makes two simple textual changes to the earlier 2024 amendment Act: it replaces “2025” with “2026” in the commencement table (subsection 2(1)) and in the Schedule 1 heading. No other powers, duties, eligibility rules or funding arrangements are changed by this Act.\n\n**Who is affected**\n\n- Department of Finance: continues to administer the specified parliamentary resources for an additional year.\n- Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA): its administrative takeover is delayed by 12 months; the IPEA will not assume those specific responsibilities until 1 July 2026.\n- Members of Parliament and staff who use the affected resources: the practical arrangements for those resources remain under Finance for one more year rather than moving to IPEA on the earlier date.\n\n**Why it matters (stated purpose and practical effect)**\n\n- The official purpose is to delay the machinery-of-government transfer to give more time for implementation. Mechanically, that means the existing administrative arrangements, systems, contracts and service delivery tied to the Department of Finance stay in place for an extra year.\n\n**Costs, incentives and trade-offs (practical tests of the stated purpose)**\n\n- Who pays: public-sector budgets (Finance and IPEA) absorb any transitional costs; there is no change to private-party fees or entitlements in this Act. Any one-off costs of planning or reconfiguring systems are deferred rather than eliminated.\n- Incentives and behaviour: delaying transfer reduces immediate pressure on IPEA to meet a July 2025 start date and reduces short-term disruption risk for users. It maintains incumbent processes and supplier arrangements for longer, which may reduce short-term transition costs but also delays any process changes the IPEA would introduce.\n- Opportunity cost: benefits expected from IPEA administration (efficiencies, changed procedures, oversight differences) are postponed by a year; any reforms tied to the transfer will not take effect until the new commencement date.\n- Implementation risk and bureaucratic discretion: the Act is administrative and narrow. The main implementation risk is limited to coordination and planning (e.g. system handover, staff transfers). Because the Act only changes timing, it does not expand discretionary powers or create new compliance obligations.\n- Compliance burden: unchanged for private parties and parliamentary users; public-sector managers must update transition plans and budgets to reflect the new date.\n- Effects on markets and private enterprise: negligible. The amendment is internal to public administration and does not alter regulatory or contracting regimes affecting private firms beyond the short-term timing of any contract novation or procurement associated with the transfer.\n\n**Concrete legal change (where to look)**\n\n- See Schedule 1 of this Act: Item 1 amends subsection 2(1) of the earlier Act to replace “2025” with “2026”; Item 2 changes the Schedule 1 heading from “2025” to “2026”. Those are the only substantive amendments.\n\n**Net practical takeaway**\n\n- This is a narrowly targeted, time-only amendment that delays a machinery-of-government transfer by one year. It preserves existing administrative arrangements for an additional 12 months and postpones any effects (positive or negative) that would flow from the IPEA assuming responsibility earlier."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/parliamentary-business-resources-legislation-amendment-machinery-of-government-change-bill-2025","history":"/api/acts/parliamentary-business-resources-legislation-amendment-machinery-of-government-change-bill-2025/history","analysis":"/api/acts/parliamentary-business-resources-legislation-amendment-machinery-of-government-change-bill-2025/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/parliamentary-business-resources-legislation-amendment-machinery-of-government-change-bill-2025/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/parliamentary-business-resources-legislation-amendment-machinery-of-government-change-bill-2025/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/parliamentary-business-resources-legislation-amendment-machinery-of-government-change-bill-2025/documents"}}