Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities
Terms of Reference
Extract from Journals of the Senate
No. 9 dated 19 March 2008
- That a select committee, to be
known as the Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous
Communities, be appointed to inquire into and report on:
- the
effectiveness of Australian Government policies following the Northern
Territory Emergency Response, specifically on the state of health,
welfare, education and law and order in regional and remote Indigenous
communities;
- the
impact of state and territory government policies on the wellbeing of
regional and remote Indigenous communities;
- the
health, welfare, education and security of children in regional and remote
Indigenous communities; and
- the
employment and enterprise opportunities in regional and remote Indigenous
communities.
- That the committee report to the
Senate on
30 September 2008,
30 March 2009 (amended to 15 June 2009), 30 September 2009
(amended to 26 November 2009), 30 March 2010 (amended
to 13 May 2010) and 30
September 2010 (tabled out of session on 24 September 2010).
Appointment of the committee
- That the committee consist of 6
members, 2 nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, 3
nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and 1 nominated by
any minority group or groups or independent senator or independent
senators.
- On the nominations of the
Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in
the Senate and minority groups and independent senators, participating
members may be appointed to the committee;
- participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and
deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of
committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee; and
- a
participating member shall be taken to be a member of the committee for
the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members
of the committee is not present.
- That the committee may proceed to
the dispatch of business notwithstanding that not all members have been
duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.
- That the committee elect an
Opposition member as chair.
- That the committee elect a
Government member as deputy chair who shall act as chair of the committee
at any time when the chair is not present at a meeting of the committee,
and at any time when the chair and deputy chair are not present at a
meeting of the committee the members present shall elect another member to
act as chair at that meeting.
- That, in the event of an equally
divided vote, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a
casting vote.
- That the quorum of the committee
be 4 members.
- That the committee have power
to appoint subcommittees consisting of 2 or more of its members and to
refer to any subcommittee any matter which the committee is empowered to
examine.
- That the committee and any
subcommittee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to
move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding
any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of
Representatives, and have leave to report from time to time its
proceedings and the evidence taken and interim recommendations.
- That the committee be
provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be
empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of
the committee with the approval of the President.
- That the committee be empowered to
print from day to day such documents and evidence as may be ordered by it,
and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in
public
For further information, contact:
Senior Clerk's Office
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia