Asylum seeker bill 'breaches constitution'

LEGAL ADVICE ON ASYLUM SEEKER BILL

* Amendments made in the Senate in relation to an "independent health advice panel", to deal with asylum seeker medical issues, breach the constitution in two ways.

* The panel members will need to be paid. The payment is drawn from public money. So the legal consequence of the bill is to increase government spending.

* Section 53 of the Constitution requires all "money bills" to originate in the House of Representatives, not the Senate.

* Section 56 of the Constitution has the effect of amendments such as this requiring the government to seek a message from the Governor General recommending the spending. This requirement has not been met.

* The government is urging MPs to reject the amendments on these grounds.

* The Solicitor-General also advised that in the past the House has responded to a problem of this kind by disagreeing to the Senate amendments and then, after obtaining and announcing a Governor-General's message recommending appropriation, proceeding to make amendments in the same terms.

(Source: Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue advice.)