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Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities

Terms of Reference

Extract from Journals of the Senate
No. 9 dated 19 March 2008

1. 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:
   1. 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;
   2. the impact of state and territory government policies on the wellbeing of regional and remote Indigenous communities;
   3. the health, welfare, education and security of children in regional and remote Indigenous communities; and
   4. the employment and enterprise opportunities in regional and remote Indigenous communities.
2. That the committee report to the Senate on 30 September 2008, 30 March 2009, 30 September 2009, 30 March 2010 and 30 September 2010.

Although the first round of submissions were due by 30 May 2008, the committee will accept further submissions at anytime throughout the course of its inquiry.

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.
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  1. 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;
  2. 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
  3. 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:

Committee Secretary
Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Phone:	+61 2 6277 3433   Freecall 1800 728 963
Fax:	+61 2 6277 5809
Email:	indig.sen@aph.gov.au

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