Thursday, 7 September 2006

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No. 57/2006

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The Senate met from 9.30am until 7.14pm

Legislation

For full text of bills and other associated documents

Bills considered

The following bills were introduced

• Migration Legislation Amendment (End of Mandatory Detention) Bill 2006 [private senator’s bill]
• Protection of the Sea (Harmful Anti-fouling Systems) Bill 2006 [passed by the House of Representatives on 6 September 2006]

The following bills were debated

• Financial Transaction Reports Amendment Bill 2006– second reading agreed to [details of the bill will be considered on a future sitting day] [first speaker ]
• Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Superannuation Safety and Other Measures) Bill 2005–second reading debate continued [first speaker ]

The following bills were passed

• International Tax Agreements Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2006
• Privacy Legislation Amendment Bill 2006
• Tax Laws Amendment (Repeal of Inoperative Provisions) Bill 2006

[These bills will now be assented to]

Bills assented to

Assent to a number of laws was reported in the Senate

See Committees for details of reports relating to legislation

Delegated legislation

See Disallowance Alert for a complete list of notices of motion to disallow (and outcomes)

Motion to disallow regulations defeated

The Senate did not agree to a motion to disallow Schedules 1 and 3 to the Parliamentary Entitlements Amendment Regulations 2006 (No. 1), as contained in Select Legislative Instrument 2006 No. 211 and made under the Parliamentary Entitlements Act 1990. [first speaker]

Notice of motion withdrawn

The Chair of the Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances withdrew a notice to disallow migration regulations relating to visa applications.

See Documents for details of instruments [Clerk’s documents] tabled

Committees

• For scheduled public committee hearings
• For committee reports

New committee system

Changes to the committee system agreed to on 14 August 2006 will take effect from 11 September 2006. The Senate appointed members to the new committees.

Estimates

The Senate agreed to hold supplementary hearings on the Budget estimatesfrom 30 October to 2 November 2006.

Reports tabled

Reports on legislation were tabled as follows:

• Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment Bill 2006–Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee

Other reports were tabled as follows:

• Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee–Annual reports referred to legislation committees–Report No. 2 of 2006
• Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee–Australia’s future oil supply–Interim report
• Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee–Water policy initiatives–Interim report

Documents tabled

• Regulations and Ordinances Committee–Ministerial correspondence relating to the scrutiny of delegated legislation, December 2005 to June 2006
• Response by the Presiding Officers to the report by the Publications Committee on the distribution of the parliamentary paper series

Government response

A government response to the report of the ASIO, ASIS and DSD Joint Committee on private review of agency security arrangements was tabled.

New inquiry

The Senate adopted report no. 9 of the Selection of Bills Committee, which recommended the following reference:

• Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2006 Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2006–referred to the Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 3 October 2006

Questions on notice–failure to provide answers

Senator Carr asked the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs why answers had not been provided to questions placed on notice during Budget estimates in 2006. The Minister explained the delay and indicated that answers would be provided.

Other debates and motions

The Senate agreed to motions about:

• Child Protection Week –moved by Senator Bartlett
• The Geneva Conventions –moved by Senator Bob Brown
• Importation of timber and wood products–moved by Senator Bartlett
• Local government in Australia –moved by the Minister for the Environment and Heritage

The Senate did not agree to motions about:

• International Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day –moved by Senator Allison
• National Threatened Species Day –moved by Senator Milne
• A proposed code of conduct for the grocery industry–moved by Senator Milne
• The ‘Slow Food’ movement –moved by Senator Nettle
• Woodstock-Abydos Reserves in the Pilbara–moved by Senator Siewert

The Senate debated a motion about the sale of Medibank Private which was moved by Senator McLucas [first speaker]

Notices of motion

For other notices of motion not mentioned elsewhere

Orders for the production of documents

Orders with continuing effect

Indexed lists of departmental and agency files published on the internet

A statement of compliance for various agencies was tabled [Letters of advice about certain files created by departments and agencies are required to be tabled twice a year]

Documents

The following documents were tabled:

• Auditor-General– Audit report no. 3 of 2006-07
• Australian National Audit Office–Annual report for 2005-06
• Clerk’s documents [legislative instruments and other documents required by statute to be tabled]
• 1 petition was presented

Also in the Senate yesterday

• Questions without notice and debate on issues arising in Question Time [first question]
• Government documents, committee reports, government responses and Auditor-General’s reports were discussed

Statistics

Statistics on the work of the Senate this week will be available in the Statistical Summary, which forms part of StatsNet–the Department of the Senate’s online statistical collection.