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No. 22/2008

Wednesday, 14 May 2008

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The Senate met from 9.30am until 7.30pm

Legislation

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

Bills considered

The following bills were introduced

• Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Assessments and Advertising) Bill 2008 [passed by the House of Representatives on 13 May 2008]
• Commonwealth Electoral (Above-the-Line Voting) Amendment Bill 2008 [private senator's bill]
• Lands Acquisition Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 [passed by the House of Representatives on 13 May 2008]
• Offshore Petroleum Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 [passed by the House of Representatives on 13 May 2008]

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

• Plastic Bag Levy (Assessment and Collection) Bill 2002 [2008]

The following bills were passed

• Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment Bill 2008–20 Government amendments agreed to and 1 subsection negatived [The House of Representatives will now consider the amendments made by the Senate]
• Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband Network) Bill 2008–1 Opposition second reading amendment agreed to [expressing a view about the policy of the bill] and 16 Opposition and 13 Government amendments agreed to. [See Journal entries nos 4 and 36–The House of Representatives will now consider the Senate's bill, in its amended form]

Notices of motion

To introduce bills

• Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Political Donations and Other Measures) Bill 2008–notice given by the Special Minister of State (Senator Faulkner)
• Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment (Feed-in-Tariff) Bill 2008–notice given by Senator Milne [private senator's bill]
• Unit Pricing (Easy comparison of grocery prices) Bill 2008–notice given by the Leader of the Family First Party (Senator Fielding) [private senator's bill]

To restore a private senator's bill to the Notice Paper

• Parliamentary (Judicial Misbehaviour or Incapacity) Commission Bill 2007–notice given by Senator Kirk

To exempt a bill from the cut-off order [to enable consideration this period of sittings]

• Social Security and Veterans' Entitlements Legislation Amendment (One-off Payments and Other Budget Measures) Bill 2008–notice given by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing (Senator McLucas)

To vary the hours of meeting

A notice was given by the Minister for Human Services (Senator Ludwig) to vary the routine of business for 15 May 2008 to allow the Government's legislative program to be considered.

Messages from the House of Representatives

Agreeing to the following bills without amendment

• Cross-Border Insolvency Bill 2008
• Financial Sector Legislation Amendment (Review of Prudential Decisions) Bill 2008

[These bills will now be assented to]

Bills assented to

Assent to a number of laws was reported in the Senate

Committees

For scheduled public committee hearings

For committee reports

Reports tabled

• Appropriations and Staffing Committee–46th report–Estimates for the Department of the Senate 2008-09
• Scrutiny of Bills Committee–Alert Digest No. 3 of 2008 and 3rd report of 2008 [contain assessments of bills on civil liberties and related grounds]

Documents tabled

• Public Accounts and Audit Joint Committee–Statement on the draft budget estimates for the Australian National Audit Office for 2008-09

New inquiries

Selection of Bills Committee report

The Senate adopted report no. 4 of the Selection of Bills Committee, and referred the Reserve Bank Amendment (Enhanced Independence) Bill 2008 to the Economics Committee to report by 31 May 2008.

Other references

• Commonwealth Electoral (Above-the-Line Voting) Amendment Bill 2008–Electoral Matters Joint Committee–to be referred to the Committee as part of its inquiry into all aspects of the 2007 Federal Election–to report not before June 2009
• Lobbying Code of Conduct–Finance and Public Administration Committee–to report by the first sitting Thursday of August 2008

Public meetings

The Senate authorised the following public meetings to be held while the Senate is sitting:

• Australian Crime Commission Joint Committee–17 June 2008 from 3.30pm to 7.00 pm–Australian Crime Commission Amendment Act 2007
• Community Affairs Committee–15 May 2008 from 3.30pm to 7.15pm–Alcohol Toll Reduction Bill 2007 [2008]

Reporting date extended

The Senate agreed to extend the reporting date for the inquiry of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee into Australia's involvement in peacekeeping operations to 26 June 2008.

Notice of motion given

A notice of motion was given to extend the reporting deadline of the Agricultural and Related Industries Select Committee to 16 October 2008 and to vary the terms of reference relating to participating membership.

Membership

The Senate agreed to various changes to committee membership.

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]

Delegated legislation disallowed

The Senate disallowed the following delegated legislation:

• Amendment 2 to the Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines No. 1, made under section 238-10 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003 [first speaker]
• Road User Charge Determination 2008 (No. 1), made under the Fuel Tax Act 2006 [first speaker]

Notice of motion to disallow given

Senator Watson gave a notice of motion to disallow an order providing conditional relief from managed investment scheme registration, financial product disclosure and AFS licensing provisions under the Corporations Act 2001 for the operation of collective investment schemes authorised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Orders for the production of documents

Notice of motion given

Senator Minchin gave a notice of motion to require the Special Minister of State (Senator Faulkner) to table documents relating to defence procurement projects–no later than 4.00pm on 19 June 2008.

Documents tabled

• Government documents [and considered]

Other business

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

Matters of public interest debate–first speaker

Adjournment debate–first speaker

Motions agreed to

• 40th anniversary of the battle of Fire Support Bases Coral and Balmoral in South Vietnam–moved by Senator Minchin
• Death of Mr Jack Gibson, OAM–moved by Senators Hutchins and Forshaw
• Death penalty–moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)
• ‘Debt2health' swap with Indonesia–moved by the Leader of the Australian Democrats (Senator Allison)
• National Volunteer Week–moved by Senator Siewert

Motions negatived

• Funding of private schools–moved by the Leader of the Australian Democrats (Senator Allison)
• Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development–moved by Senator Milne
• Parliamentary approval before committing Australia to war–moved by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown)

Notices of motion

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

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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

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