Monday, 1 December 2008

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No. 85/2008

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The Senate met from 12.30pm until 11.32pm

Legislation

Bills and related documents available on BillsNet <www.aph.gov.au/bills/index.htm>

Bills considered

The following bill was introduced

• Tax Laws Amendment (Luxury Car Tax—Minor Amendments) Bill 2008 [passed by the House of Representatives on 27 November 2008]

The following bills were exempted from the cut-off order [to enable consideration in this period of sittings]

• Corporations Amendment (Short Selling) Bill 2008
• Tax Laws Amendment (Luxury Car Tax—Minor Amendments) Bill 2008

The following bills were passed

• Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Further 2008 Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2008–7 Government amendments agreed to and 1 Part negatived [The House of Representatives will now consider the amendments made by the Senate–see Journals entries nos 5 and 28]
• Tax Laws Amendment (2008 Measures No. 5) Bill 2008 [This bill will now be assented to]

Notice of motion to vary the hours of meeting

A notice was given by the Minister for Human Services (Senator Ludwig) to vary the hours of meeting for the remainder of the week to enable the Government’s legislative program to be considered.

Message from the House of Representatives

• Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws—General Law Reform) Bill 2008–Agreeing to the amendments made by the Senate [This bill 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

Committees

For scheduled public committee hearings
For committee reports

Report tabled

• Building and Construction Industry (Restoring Workplace Rights) Bill 2008–Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee

Document tabled

• Intelligence and Security Joint Committee–Annual report of committee activities 2007-08–Presiding Officers’ response

Notices of motion given

To extend reporting deadlines:

• Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management (Repeal and Consequential Amendment) Bill 2008–Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee–to report by 18 December 2008
• Residential and community aged care in Australia–Finance and Public Administration Committee–to report by 29 April 2009

To hold meetings when the Senate is sitting:

1. Fuel and Energy Select Committee–2 December 2008 from 4.00pm–private meeting otherwise than in accordance with standing order 33(1)

Membership

The Senate appointed Senator Nash to replace Senator Boswell as a member of the Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee for its inquiry into the effectiveness of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and other programs in protecting threatened species and ecological communities, and appointed Senator Boswell as a participating member.

Documents

Delegated legislation

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

• Clerk’s documents were tabled [legislative instruments and other documents required by statute to be tabled]

Motion to disallow defeated

The Senate did not agree to a motion which would have disallowed the Environmental and Natural Resource Management Guidelines.[first speaker]

Orders for the production of documents–Notice of motion given

Senator Milne gave a notice of motion to require that documents relating to new Feed-in Tariff schemes be tabled by 4.00pm on 3 December 2008.

Ministerial statements

The Minister for Climate Change and Water (Senator Wong):

• tabled a ministerial statement about the COAG business regulation agreement and small business initiatives
• made a statement about the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme [a motion to take note of the statement was debated and agreed to]

Other business

Questions without notice and issues arising during question time–first question
Adjournment debate–first speaker

Motions agreed to

• World AIDS Day–moved by Senator Siewert
• Construction of a road through Tarkine Forest, Tasmania–moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)

Motion negatived

• Exclusion of the Western Australian Treasurer from a pre-COAG meeting–moved by Senator Cormann

Death of Lieutenant Michael Kenneth Housdan Fussell

The Leader of the Government in the Senate (Senator Evans) moved that the Senate records its deep regret at the death, on 27 November 2008, of Lieutenant Michael Kenneth Housdan Fussell, killed while on combat operations in Afghanistan. The motion was supported.

Notices of motion

Notices of motion given today are available in the Senate Journals.

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