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No. 53/2011
Senate Daily Summary
Thursday, 22 September 2011
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The Senate met from 9.30 am until 7.14 pm
Legislation
Bills and related documents
Bills considered
The following bills were introduced
- Auditor-General Amendment Bill 2011 [ private member’s bill– passed by the House of Representatives on 20 September 2011]
- Navigation Amendment Bill 2011 [passed by the House of Representatives on 22 September 2011]
The following bills were debated
- Foreign Acquisitions Amendment (Agricultural Land) Bill 2010 [private senators’ bill] –second reading debate commenced [first speaker]
- Landholders’ Right to Refuse (Coal Seam Gas) Bill 2011 [private senator’s bill] –second reading debate commenced [first speaker]
See Committees for details of reports relating to legislation
Committees
Scheduled public committee hearings
Committee reports
Estimates
Additional information arising from estimates hearings was tabled.
Reports tabled
Report on legislation
- Economics References Committee–The asset insurance arrangements of Australian state governments [report] [a motion was moved to take note of the report]
Other reports
- Environment and Communications References Committee–The koala – saving our national icon [report] [a motion was moved to take note of the report]
- Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee–Part II: Incidents onboard HMAS Success between March and May 2009 and subsequent events [ report ] [a motion to take note of the report was debated – first speaker]
- Privileges Committee–147th report–Person referred to in the Senate–Reverend Monsignor Ian Dempsey [report] [motion to adopt the report agreed to]
- Publications Committee–9th report [report] [motion to adopt the report agreed to]
Government responses tabled
- Economics References Committee–GROCERYchoice website
- Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee–The operation of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
- Intelligence and Security Joint Committee–Review of administration and expenditure No. 8–Australian intelligence agencies
- Treaties Joint Committee–116th report–Review into Treaties tabled on 24 and 25 November 2010, 9 February and 1 March 2011 and Treaties referred on 16 November 2010 (part 3)
New inquiry and proposed inquiries
Selection of Bills Committee report
The Senate adopted report no. 13 of the Selection of Bills Committee and referred the Consumer Credit and Corporations Legislation Amendment (Enhancements) Bill 2011 to the Economics Legislation Committee to report by 23 November 2011.
The Senate debated but did not agree to a proposal to refer the Clean Energy Bill 2011 and 17 related bills and the Steel Transformation Plan Bill 2011 to each of the legislation committees [first speaker].
Meetings during the sitting of the Senate
The Senate authorised the following meetings to be held while the Senate is sitting:
- Migration Joint Committee –12 October 2011 from 10.30 am –public meeting
- Rural Affairs and Transport References Committee –22 September 2011 from 4.30 pm –Management of the Murray-Darling Basin –private meeting otherwise than in accordance with standing order 33(1)
Reporting date extended
The Senate extended the reporting date for the inquiry of the Economics References Committee into the impacts of supermarket price decisions on the dairy industry to 1 November 2011.
Notices of motion
To hold meetings when the Senate is sitting
- Community Affairs Legislation Committee –11 October 2011 from 4.00 pm –private meeting otherwise than in accordance with standing order 33(1)
- Community Affairs References Committee –12 October 2011 from 4.00 pm –private meeting otherwise than in accordance with standing order 33(1)
- Electoral Matters Joint Committee –12 October 2011 from 9.30 am to 11.00 am –Funding of political parties and election campaigns–public meeting
Membership
The Senate agreed to the following changes to committee membership:
- Economics References Committee –Senator Ryan to replace Senator Eggleston for the committee’s inquiry into the impacts of supermarket price decisions on the dairy industry on 6 October 2011, and Senator Eggleston to be appointed as a participating member
- Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee –Senator Gallacher to replace Senator Furner on 23 September 2011, and Senator Furner to be appointed as a participating member
- Scrutiny of New Taxes Select Committee–Senator Bushby discharged from and Senator Boswell appointed to the committee on 23 September 2011
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 withdrawn
2 notices of motion to disallow the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Amendment Regulations 2011 (No. 1), as contained in Select Legislative Instrument 2011 No. 144 and made under the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009 were withdrawn [homepage].
Documents tabled
- 1 petition and 2 petitioning documents
- Australian National Audit Office–Annual report for 2010-11
- Department of the Senate–Travel expenditure–1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011
- Department of the Senate–Travelling allowance payments to senators and members–1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011
- Auditor-General– Audit report no. 7 of 2011-12
Ministerial statements tabled
The Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) tabled ministerial statements about–
- streamlining Australia’s anti-dumping system
- tax reform
Documents discussed
Government documents, committee reports and government responses were discussed [see Journal entries 49 and 50] .
Other business
Questions without notice and issues arising during question time– first question
Adjournment debate– first speaker
Motions agreed to
Motions negatived
Motion debated
The Senate did not agree to a motion moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown) to suspend standing orders to enable debate on a motion about the forestry transition in Tasmania [ first speaker ].
Notices of motion
Notices of motion given today are available in the Senate Journals [see Journal entries 5 and 23].
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