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No. 19/2009
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The Senate met from 9.30am until 7.30pm
New Senator
Senator Christopher Back was sworn in as a senator for Western
Australia to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation, on 30
January 2009, of Senator Ellison.
Legislation
Bills and related documents available on BillsNet <www.aph.gov.au/bills/index.htm>
Bills considered
The following private senator’s bill was debated
- Protecting Children from Junk Food Advertising (Broadcasting
Amendment) Bill 2008–second reading debate commenced
[first
speaker]
The following bills were introduced, debated and passed
- Federal Financial Relations Bill 2009
Federal Financial Relations (Consequential Amendments and
Transitional Provisions) Bill 2009
[These bills will now be assented to]
The following bills were passed
- Tax Agent Services Bill 2008
- Tax Laws Amendment (2008 Measures No. 6) Bill 2009
[These bills will now be assented to]
Variation to hours of meeting
The Senate agreed to vary the
hours of meeting and routine of business for 16 and 17
March 2009 to enable the Government’s legislative program to
be considered.
Committees
For scheduled public
committee hearings
For committee
reports
Estimates
The Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee tabled additional
information arising from the 2008-09 supplementary budget estimates
hearings.
Reports tabled
Public meetings
The Senate authorised the following public meetings to be held
while the Senate is sitting:
- Economics Committee–12 March 2009 from 6.30pm–Bank
mergers
- Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee–16
March 2009 from 4.45pm–Management of the Murray-Darling Basin
system
Reporting dates extended
The Senate extended reporting dates for the following
inquiries:
- Community Affairs Committee–Excise Tariff Amendment (2009
Measures No. 1) Bill 2009 and a related bill–to report
by 16 March 2009
- Finance and Public Administration Committee–Annual
reports tabled by 31 October 2008–to report by 19 March
2009
- Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee–Annual reports
tabled by 31 October 2008–to report by 17 March
2009
- National Broadband Network Select Committee–to report by
22 June 2009
- Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee–
- 2008-09 additional estimates–to report by 31 March
2009
- Management of the Murray-Darling Basin system–to report
by 12 May 2009
- Natural resource management and conservation
challenges–to report by 12 May 2009
Notices of motion given
To refer matters to a committee
To
vary terms of reference
- Corporations and Financial Services Joint
Committee–notice given by Senator Macdonald
Membership
The Senate agreed to
various changes to committee membership.
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]
Orders for the production of documents
Statement by Minister
The Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law (Senator
Sherry) tabled
a statement relating to the order of the Senate [agreed to on
3 December 2008] requiring the tabling of a document about
section 86A of the Water Act 2007.
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]
Document tabled
- Responses to a Senate resolution about:
- Sri Lanka–from the Sri Lankan High Commissioner (His
Excellency Mr Senaka Walgampaya, PC) [resolution agreed to
11 February 2009]
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 agreed to
Motions negatived
-
50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising and Tibet’s
future–moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator
Bob Brown)
-
Chinalco and Rio Tinto–moved by the Leader of the
Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)
-
Executive remuneration–moved by the Leader of the
Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)
Statements by President
The President made statements relating to:
- the
retirement of Mr Trevor Fowler, Director of Hansard Projects,
Department of Parliamentary Services
- a
matter raised by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator
Bob Brown) during debate on the Protecting Children from Junk Food
Advertising (Broadcasting Amendment) Bill 2008 concerning a motion
to close the debate [see
Senate Hansard]
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.
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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