Parliament

= Agencies and mechanisms of law reform - Parliament =

1. **//Explain the role of the parliament in the law reform process//** Within Australia, the predominant law-making body is the Federal parliament. The six State parliament bodies are also accountable for the creation of new law and reform of existing laws. Occasionally, laws established by the Federal parliament conflicts with the laws applied in a state, and in this instance, the Federal law will most certainly prevail. Parliament will usually respond to any concerns which may be held in the mind of the community in order to introduce new laws and amend existing legislation that may have appeared to lose relevance in association and context to current social values. Parliament also has the ability to decide whether or not the law in a certain area should be classified to the legal bureaucracy.

2. **//Give examples of contemporary law reform issues being considered by Parliament//** During August of 2009, there was a large amount of publicity circling the introduction of the RU486 pill in Australia, and whether or not it should be accepted by our society. This contraceptive was made for use by women who wished to have an abortion. As you could imagine, this created high levels of controversy and the concept of moral rights and wrongs came into clear persepctive through the government's ideals, protest groups' values, media grilling, and the eyes of young women. Female politicians within Australia's parliament argued that the decision of allowing it or not throughout the nations' pharmacies should not be in the hands of then Health Minister, Tony Abbott, but up to what professionals in the medical occupation. Consequently, it was then passed on to doctors and researchers, and they reached the decision to make it a legal drug in Australia. To this day, the access of the RU486 pill through prescriptions by doctors remains a highly controversial issue.

//To read more on the RU486 pill and all its controversy, visit the following links: http://www.theage.com.au/national/abortion-pill-to-be-widely-available-20090809-ee9i.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/womenshealth/ru486-divides-australia-like-no-other-pill-since-the-pill/2006/02/17/1140064236328.html //