Subscribe to the Senate Daily Summary Updates RSS feed http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/rss/sds.xml

<< Return to previous page | Senate Daily Summary

No. 23/2008

Thursday, 15 May 2008

Download this document (PDF 338KB)

The Senate met from 9.30am until 9.31pm

The Senate will meet again on 16 June 2008. Senate committees will meet from 26 May to 5 June 2008 to examine budget estimates.

Budget 2008-09

Budget Papers, Portfolio Budget Statements and related sites <www.budget.gov.au>

The Opposition, the Leader of the Australian Democrats, the Australian Greens and the Leader of the Family First Party responded to the Budget statement and documents.

Legislation

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

Bills considered

The following bills were introduced

• Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Political Donations and Other Measures) Bill 2008 [new Senate bill]
• Higher Education Support Amendment (Removal of the Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements and National Governance Protocols Requirements and Other Matters) Bill 2008 [passed by the House of Representatives on 14 May 2008]
• Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment (Feed-in-Tariff) Bill 2008 [private senator's bill]
• Social Security and Veterans' Entitlements Legislation Amendment (One-off Payments and Other Budget Measures) Bill 2008 [passed by the House of Representatives on 14 May 2008]
• Unit Pricing (Easy comparison of grocery prices) Bill 2008 [private senator's bill]
• Veterans' Entitlements Legislation Amendment (2007 Election Commitments) Bill 2008 [passed by the House of Representatives on 14 May 2008]

The following private senator's bill was restored to the Notice Paper

• Parliamentary (Judicial Misbehaviour or Incapacity) Commission Bill 2007 [2008]

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

• Social Security and Veterans' Entitlements Legislation Amendment (One-off Payments and Other Budget Measures) Bill 2008

The following bill was debated

• Tax Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Reduction) Bill 2008–second reading agreed to [ first speaker ] [details of the bill will be considered on a future sitting day]

The following bills were passed

• Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Amendment Bill 2008 [This bill will now be assented to]
• Offshore Petroleum Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 [This bill will now be assented to]
• Social Security and Veterans' Entitlements Legislation Amendment (One-off Payments and Other Budget Measures) Bill 2008 [This bill will now be assented to]
• Statute Law Revision Bill 2008 [The House of Representatives will now consider this bill]
• Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Trustee Board and Other Measures) (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2008 [The House of Representatives will now consider this bill]

Message from the House of Representatives

• Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband Network) Bill 2008–agreeing to the bill with amendments [The Senate agreed to the amendments. The bill will now be assented to]

Committees

For scheduled public committee hearings

For committee reports

Estimates

Additional information arising from the 2007-08 additional estimates hearings was tabled.

Reports tabled

Reports on legislation

• Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Emergency Response Consolidation) Bill 2008–Community Affairs Committee

Other reports

• Privileges Committee–133rd report–Possible false or misleading evidence before the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee [A motion to endorse the findings at paragraph 1.31 was debated.]
• Publications Committee–2nd Report [report adopted]
• Treaties Joint Committee–90th Report–Treaties tabled on 12 March 2008

New inquiries

The Senate referred the following matters to the Community Affairs Committee:

• Proposed changes to the alcohol excise regime–to report by 24 June 2008
• Special Disability Trusts–to report by 18 September 2008

Proposed reference

The Senate did not agree to refer matters relating to current disclosure regimes for charities to the Economics Committee.

Variation

The Senate agreed to extend the reporting date for the Agricultural and Related Industries Select Committee to 16 October 2008, and to vary the Committee's membership provisions.

Notices of motion given

To refer matters to committees:

• Exclusive Brethren–Community Affairs Committee–to report by 26 November 2008
• Petrol sniffing in central Australia–Community Affairs Committee–to report by 16 October 2008

Membership

The Senate agreed to various changes to committee membership [see Journals entries nos 26 and 50]

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

Motion agreed to

The Senate ordered the Minister representing the Minister for Defence (Senator Faulkner) to table documents relating to defence procurement projects, no later than 4.00pm on 19 June 2008.

Notices of motion given

The following notices of motion were given requiring Ministers to table documents:

• Each minister in the Senate to table lists of all appointments made and vacancies to be filled by the Government–no later than 7 days before the commencement of the budget, supplementary budget and additional estimates hearings–moved by Senator Minchin
• Each minister in the Senate to table a list of grants approved–no later than 7 days before the commencement of the budget, supplementary budget and additional estimates hearings–moved by Senator Minchin

Documents tabled

• Auditor-General–Audit report no. 33 of 2007-08
• 4 petitions

Ministerial statement

The Special Minister of State (Senator Faulkner) made a statement relating to security threats against the Australian High Commissioner and his staff in Fiji.

Other business

Questions without notice and issues arising during question time–first question

Adjournment debate– first speaker

Motions agreed to

• Closure of CSIRO wool scour–moved by Senator Milne
• Destruction caused by Cyclone Nargis in Burma–moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)
• Earthquake in south west China–moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)
• Hospital care for women–moved by the Leader of the Australian Democrats (Senator Allison)
• Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Fibromyalgia Awareness Week–moved by the Leader of the Australian Democrats (Senator Allison)
• Tibet–moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)

Motions negatived

• Palestine–moved by Senator Nettle
• Pilot medical heroin schemes–moved by the Leader of the Australian Democrats (Senator Allison)
• Radioactive waste facilities–moved by Senator Milne
• Smoking in films–moved by the Leader of the Australian Democrats (Senator Allison)

Motion debated

• Budget 2008-09–moved by Senator Parry [first speaker]

Statement

The Minister for Human Services (Senator Ludwig) made a statement relating to the retirement of the Chief Executive Officer of Centrelink, Mr Jeff Whalan.

Notices of motion

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

* * * * * * * * * * * * 

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

Comments to: research.sen@aph.gov.au
Last reviewed 16 May 2008 by the Senate Web Administrator
© Commonwealth of Australia
Parliament of Australia Web Site Privacy Statement
Images courtesy of AUSPIC