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page | Senate Daily Summary
No. 19/2008
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The Senate met from 9.30am until 5.00pm
The Senate has now completed the Autumn (2)
sittings and will commence the Budget sittings on
13 May
2008
Legislation
Bills and related documents available on BillsNet
Bills considered
The following bills were introduced
- A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Improved Access to Baby
Bonus) Amendment Bill 2008 [private senator’s bill]
- Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Amendment Bill 2008
[passed by the House of Representatives on 19 March 2008]
- Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Communications Fund)
Bill 2008 [passed by the House of Representatives on 19 March
2008]
- Tradex Scheme Amendment Bill 2008 [passed by the House of
Representatives on 19 March 2008]
The following private senator’s bill was defeated by a
majority vote
- Migration Legislation Amendment (Complementary Protection
Visas) Bill 2006 [2008]–defeated at the second reading
The following bills were passed
- Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2007-2008
Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2007-2008
–an Australian Democrats
second reading amendment was agreed to
- Tradex Scheme Amendment Bill 2008
[These bills will now be assented to]
Notice of motion
To restore a private senator’s bill to the Notice
Paper
- Plastic Bag Levy (Assessment and Collection) Bill
2002–notice given by the Leader of the Australian Greens (
Senator Bob Brown )
Messages from the House of Representatives
Reported
- Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with
Fairness) Bill 2008–agreeing to the amendments made by the
Senate [This bill will now be assented to]
Considered
- Infrastructure Australia Bill 2008–the message reported
that the House of Representatives disagreed to the
amendments made by the Senate. The Senate did not insist on the
amendments disagreed to by the House. [The bill will now be
assented to]
Committees
For scheduled public
committee hearings
For committee
reports
Estimates
Additional information arising from estimates hearings was
tabled.
Reports tabled
- Appropriations and Staffing Committee–45th
report–Department of the Senate’s budget: Ordinary
annual services of the government; Parliamentary computer
network
- Community Affairs Committee–A
decent quality of life: Inquiry into the cost of living
pressures on older Australians
-
Eight standing committees –Examination of annual reports
tabled by 31 October 2007
- Publications Committee–
1st Report [report adopted]
Documents tabled
- Regulations and Ordinances Committee–
- Delegated legislation monitor–Disallowable legislative
instruments tabled in the Senate in 2007
- Ministerial correspondence relating to the scrutiny of
delegated legislation for the period February 2007 to March
2008
New inquiries
The Senate referred the following
matters to the Environment, Communications and the Arts
Committee:
- Broadcasting Code of Conduct–to report by 9 June
2008
- Management of Australia ’s waste streams–to report
by August 2008
- Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband
Network) Bill 2008–to report by 7 May 2008
Reporting date extended
The Senate agreed to extend the reporting date of the State
Government Financial Management Select Committee to 27 August
2008.
Use of prior records by committee
The Senate agreed to enable the Economics Committee to consider
and use records from the previous Parliament relating to its
consideration of an earlier version of the Australian Securities
and Investments Commission (Fair Bank and Credit Card Fees)
Amendment Bill 2008.
Membership
The Senate agreed to various changes to committee membership
[see Journals entries
26 and
33 ]
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]
Notices of motion to disallow given
- Amendment 2 to the Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines No. 1,
made under section 238-10 of the Higher Education Support Act
2003–notice given by Senator Mason
- Road User Charge Determination 2008 (No. 1), made under the
Fuel Tax Act 2006–notice given by the Leader of The
Nationals in the Senate ( Senator Scullion )
Orders for the production of documents–Orders with
continuing effect
Orders with continuing effect
Indexed lists of departmental and agency files published on
the Internet
Statements of compliance for
various agencies were tabled [Letters of advice about certain
files created by departments and agencies are required
to be tabled twice a year]
Documents tabled
Documents discussed
Government documents, committee reports, government responses
and Auditor-General’s reports were discussed
Other business
Questions without notice and issues arising during question
time–first
question
Adjournment debate–first
speaker
Motions negatived
-
China –moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens (
Senator Bob Brown )
- Mercy Ministries –moved by the Leader of the Australian
Democrats ( Senator Allison ) [See Journals entries nos
8 and
12]
Question on notice–Failure to provide
answer
Senator Allison asked the Minister for Innovation, Industry,
Science and Research ( Senator Carr ) why an answer had not been
provided to question on notice no. 92 asked on 12 February
2008 relating to the Renewable Remote Power Generation Programme.
Senator Carr provided an explanation and an answer.
Advance to the Finance Minister
The Advance to the Finance Minister for 2006-2007 was
approved.
Address-in-reply
Debate continued on the Address-in-reply to the
Governor-General’s speech.
Notices of motion
Notices of motion given today are available in the Senate
Journals.
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.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Online
The Senate Daily Summary is available on the Internet
at www.aph.gov.au/senate
It is issued by the Senate Table Office as a convenient summary
of each day’s proceedings in the Senate. For a complete
account see the official record, the Journals of the
Senate, on the Internet at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/pubs/index.htm
Related resources
The Order of Business (or ‘Senate Red’) and
the Dynamic Red (which updates the Order of
Business throughout the sitting day) are also available on the
Internet at www.aph.gov.au/senate
Contact details
Inquiries, comments and suggestions:
phone 6277 3021
e-mail: sds@aph.gov.au