Chapter 16 - Committees
Senators’ Interests Committee
Under standing order 22A(1), the
functions of this committee are:
-
to inquire into and report
upon the arrangements made for the compilation, maintenance and accessibility
of a Register of Senators’ Interests;
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to consider any proposals
made by senators and others as to the form and content of the Register;
-
to consider any submissions
made in relation to the registering or declaring of interests;
-
to consider what classes of
person, if any, other than senators ought to be required to register and
declare their interests; and
-
to make recommendations
upon these and any other matters which are relevant.
Its membership is required to reflect as closely as possible the
composition of the Senate. The committee has a specified membership, which may
be varied, of eight senators, three nominated by the Leader of the Government
in the Senate, four nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and
one nominated by any minority groups or independent senators. The chair of the
committee is a member of the committee nominated by the Leader of the
Opposition in the Senate. Provision is made for the appointment of a deputy
chair and for the chair (or deputy when acting as chair) to have a casting vote
when the votes are equally divided.
The committee has power to send for persons and documents and to confer
with a similar committee of the House of Representatives. It does not have
power to move from place to place. Its inquiry power is qualified by a
requirement that any exercise of the power to send for persons and documents, or
any investigation of the private interests of any person, must be agreed to by
not fewer than three members other than the chair. This is intended to be a
safeguard against use of the committee’s powers for partisan political
purposes.
The committee is required to present an annual report and may also
report from time to time.
The committee was
first established on 17 March 1994 following a commitment given by the government as part
of a package of “accountability measures” to be pursued in the wake of the
forced resignation of the Minister for Environment, Sport and Territories over
the administration of the Community Cultural, Recreation and Sporting
Facilities Program. The package was announced by the Leader of the Government
in the Senate, Senator Gareth Evans, on 3 March 1994 (SD, pp 1453-4). Notices of motion to establish such a
committee had languished on the Notice Paper for years through the 1980s and
early 1990s. (See also Chapter 6, Senators, under Pecuniary interests.)
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