Monday, 24 November 2008

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No. 80/2008

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The Senate met from 12.30pm until 10.15pm

Legislation

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

Bills considered

The following bills were introduced

• National Measurement Amendment Bill 2008
• Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Economic Security Strategy) Bill 2008 and 2 related bills [see also bills passed]

[passed by the House of Representatives on 13 November 2008]

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

• Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Economic Security Strategy) Bill 2008 and 2 related bills

The following bills were passed

• National Rental Affordability Scheme Bill 2008–1 Opposition second reading amendment agreed to [expressing a view about the policy of the bill–see Journals entries nos 2 and 30 ] [This bill will now be assented to]
  National Rental Affordability Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2008–2 Government amendments agreed to [The House of Representatives will now consider the amendments made by the Senate]
• Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws—Superannuation) Bill 2008–a message was reported advising that the House had made the amendments requested by the Senate–the third reading of the bill was debated and agreed to [The House of Representatives will now consider the amendments made by the Senate–see Journals entry no. 27 , 12 November 2008]
• Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Economic Security Strategy) Bill 2008 and 2 related bills [These bills will now be assented to]

The following bill was agreed to with requests

• Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws—General Law Reform) Bill 2008–90 Government amendments and 2 Government requests for amendments agreed to, 24 items and 2 Parts negatived [see Journals entry no. 28 , 12 November 2008 for previous consideration of the bill] [The House of Representatives will now consider the amendments requested by the Senate]

See Committees for details of reports relating to legislation

Committees

For scheduled public committee hearings
For committee reports

Reports tabled

Reports on legislation

• Aged Care Amendment (2008 Measures No. 2) Bill 2008–Community Affairs Committee
• Interstate Road Transport Charge Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2008 and a related bill–Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee
• Social Security Legislation Amendment (Employment Services Reform) Bill 2008–Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee
• Temporary Residents’ Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 and a related bill–Economics Committee
• Water Amendment Bill 2008–Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee–Interim report and final report

Other reports

• Treaties Joint Committee–96th report–Treaties tabled on 16 September 2008

Documents tabled

• Tax Laws Amendment (2008 Measures No. 5) Bill 2008–Economics Committee–Additional comments by Opposition senators
• Temporary Residents’ Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 and a related bill–Economics Committee–Minority report by Senator Xenophon

New inquiry

• Bank mergers–Economics Committee–to report by 26 February 2009

Public meeting

The Senate authorised the Economics Committee to hold a public meeting while the Senate is sitting on 24 November 2008 from 4.00pm for the committee’s inquiry into the Corporations Amendment (Short Selling) Bill 2008.

Notices of motion given

To extend reporting deadlines:

• Corporations Amendment (Short Selling) Bill 2008–Economics Committee–to report by 6 February 2009
• Plebiscite for an Australian Republic Bill 2008–Finance and Public Administration Committee–to report by 15 June 2009

To hold meetings when the Senate is sitting:

• Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings Joint Committee–25 November 2008 from 4.00pm
• Economics Committee–25 November 2008 from 6.00pm–COAG Reform Fund Bill 2008 and 2 related bills

To refer matters to committees:

• Impact of the ABC Learning collapse–Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee–to report by 12 March 2009–notice given by Senator Hanson-Young
• Fair Work Bill 2008–Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee–to report by 27 February 2009–notice given by the Minister for Human Services (Senator Ludwig)

Membership

The Senate agreed to the following changes and appointments to committee membership:

• Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee–Senator Parry discharged and Senator Troeth appointed
• Finance and Public Administration Committee–Senator Fierravanti-Wells discharged and Senator Parry appointed

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]

Notice of intention to withdraw notices

The Chair of the Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances gave a notice of intention to withdraw notices to disallow the following delegated legislation:

• Defence Force (Home Loans Assistance) Amendment Regulations 2008 (No. 1)
• Wool Services Privatisation (Research Body) Declaration 2008

Documents tabled

• Government documents
• Responses to Senate resolutions about:
  • Death penalty–from the Attorney-General (Mr McClelland) [resolution agreed to on 13 October 2008]
  • Murray-Darling Basin system–from the Premier of Queensland (Ms Bligh) [resolution agreed to on 16 September 2008]
  • Single age pensions–from the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (Ms Macklin) [resolution agreed to on 16 September 2008]
• A petition

Ministerial statement tabled

The Special Minister of State (Senator Faulkner) tabled a ministerial statement about the review of the citizenship test and the  report by the Australian Citizenship Test Review Committee–Moving forward…Improving pathways to citizenship [A motion to take note of the statement was agreed to]

Other business

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

Motion debated

The Senate discussed issues relating to the Rudd Government’s first year in office, raised by Senator Mason as a matter of public importance. [first speaker]

Statement by President

The President made a statement relating to the restructuring of question time.

Notices of motion

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

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