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CHAPTER 3—PARLIAMENT
Part A—LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY
Legislative authority and power of Parliament
46.—(1) The authority and power to make laws for the State is vested in Parliament
consisting of the members of Parliament and the President, and is exercised through the
enactment of Bills passed by Parliament and assented to by the President.
(2) No person or body other than Parliament has authority to make any law in Fiji,
except under authority conferred by this Constitution or by a written law.
Exercise of legislative powers
47.—(1) Any member of Parliament may introduce a Bill in Parliament, but only
the Minister responsible for finance, or another Minister authorised by Cabinet, may
introduce a Money Bill, as described in subsection (4).
(2) Parliament may proceed to consider any Bill in accordance with its standing
orders, which must provide—
(a) a structured process for the introduction, deliberation, amendment and
enactment of Bills; and
(b) sufficient time to elapse between the steps in the process for members and
committees to give due consideration to each Bill.
(3) A Bill may proceed more quickly than permitted by the standing orders if—
(a) when the Bill was introduced, the mover requested that Parliament approve
consideration of the Bill without delay; and
(b) a majority of the members of Parliament voted in support of that request.
(4) In this section, a Money Bill is any Bill that—
(a) imposes, increases, alters, remits, grants exemptions from, reduces or
abolishes taxes;
(b) imposes charges on a public fund or varies or repeals any of those charges;
(c) appropriates public money or otherwise relates to public moneys;
(d) raises or guarantees any loan, or its repayment;
(e) deals with the receipt, custody, investment, issue or audit of money; or
(f)
deals with anything incidental to those matters.