For the sitting period 27 November-7 December
2000
ESTIMATES HEARINGS EXTENDED - WITNESSES ORDERED TO
APPEAR
Four motions were passed on 28 November to provide
for the continuation of estimates hearings which were not concluded
during the scheduled hearings period.
In the case of the Employment, Workplace Relations,
Small Business and Education Legislation Committee, the Employment
Advocate, the officer who had been acting Employment Advocate and
the Secretary of the Department of Workplace Relations and Small
Business were ordered to appear before the committee to answer
further questions. This order resulted from their not having
appeared together at previous hearings and the desire of senators
to explore their previous answers. The hearing duly occurred with
all three officers present on 7 December. There are precedents for
the Senate ordering particular witnesses to appear at committee
hearings.
PUBLICATION OF IN CAMERA EVIDENCE
The Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport
Legislation Committee on 30 November took the unusual step of
asking the Senate to publish evidence taken in camera before the
committee in relation to the Wool Services Privatisation Bill. The
Senate's order was necessary because the committee had completed
its inquiry and the evidence was therefore in the custody of the
Senate. The committee considered that the Senate should have the
evidence available to it to assist in an understanding of the
legislation.
PRIVILEGE - DOCUMENTS SEIZED UNDER SEARCH
WARRANT
The matter of the documents seized under search
warrant in the offices of Senator Crane (see Bulletin No. 147) was
resolved on 5 December when the Senate appointed a person to
receive the documents, to divide them into documents immune from
seizure and documents not immune from seizure, and to return the
former to Senator Crane and provide the latter to the police who
obtained the search warrants. The person named in the resolution
for this task was Mr Stephen Skehill, a former Secretary of the
Attorney-General's Department and Australian Government
Solicitor.
ORDERS FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS
The Senate's interest in the safety requirements of
heavy trucks, expressed in repeated orders for documents, was
further rewarded with the tabling of five volumes of documents on
27 November.
The order passed on 4 October relating to taxation
documents was answered by a government statement on 1 December
indicating that the government was going through documents to
select those which should be tabled in response to the order.
In response to an order passed on 4 December for
documents relating to GST polling, two government statements were
made on 7 December, partially responding to the order and promising
further responses.
Another example occurred on 6 December of the
government responding to a Senate resolution calling for the
production of a report. Resolutions which 'call for' documents are
not technically orders for the production of documents, but are
frequently answered.
DISALLOWANCE MOTIONS TAKEN TOGETHER
A special order was made on 27 November to provide
for a series of motions for disallowance of statutory instruments
to be moved together but voted on separately. The instruments were
all made under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act.
SELECT COMMITTEE - FINAL REPORT
One of the longest running select committees, the
Select Committee on Information Technologies, concluded on 7
December with the presentation of its final report. The committee
had been reappointed under different names at various times, and
its origins go back to June 1991.
BILL REVIVED
Another example of the revival of a bill previously
rejected at the third reading occurred on 5 December. The
Interactive Gambling (Moratorium) Bill 2000 was revived at the
committee stage. As it had not been amended in committee on its
previous consideration, it was not necessary for the revival motion
to specify whether it was the bill before or after amendment which
was revived. The bill was then amended and passed on the following
day.
OTHER LEGISLATION: COMPLEX TRANSACTIONS
Several bills considered during the final sittings
for 2000 were the subject of complex transactions and multiple
journeys between the Houses.
The Renewable Energy (Electricity) Bill 2000 was
finally resolved on 7 December with a resolution whereby the Senate
insisted on some of its amendments to which the government in the
House had disagreed, did not insist on some other amendments but
agreed to substitute amendments, and did not agree to a substitute
amendment but made another substitute amendment in its place. In
order to put in place the agreement on this bill, it was necessary
to immediately introduce another bill to amend a tax imposition
bill which had accompanied the original bill. The new bill was able
to be introduced into the Senate because it did not impose tax, and
it was passed immediately after introduction. The new bill, in its
turn, had to come back to the Senate when the government in the
House disagreed to an amendment made to it in the Senate.
The government took the unusual step of moving that
the Senate insist on its amendments disagreed to in the House in
relation to the Financial Sector Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1)
2000 on 30 November. The government had decided to accept some
amendments, to which it had at first disagreed, as part of an
agreement to pass the bill.
An example of amendments generated by the Scrutiny
of Bills Committee occurred on 30 November when a package of
horticulture bills was passed with extensive amendments following
discussion of points raised by the committee. The States Grants
(Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Bill 2000 (see
Bulletin No. 148, p. 3) was, as expected, finally passed on 7
December, but not before it was repeatedly returned to the House of
Representatives to emphasise the Senate's disagreement with the
government's policy on grants to schools. The Opposition had
indicated that it would eventually allow the bill the pass so as
not to deprive all schools of grants. Other non-government
senators, however, voted to continue the dispute, even at that
stage.
Most of the legislative time of the sittings was
devoted to the Gene Technology Bill 2000, to regulate genetic
technologies. The bill was the subject of many complex amendments,
about half of which were agreed to in the Senate.
A literally last minute amendment allowed the
Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (No. 8) 2000 to pass at the very end
of the sittings. An agreement between the government and the
Australian Democrats in relation to GST exemption for water
survival courses was reflected in the Senate's agreement to an
amendment in substitution for a Senate amendment.
PROCEDURE COMMITTEE REPORT
The Procedure Committee presented a report on 6
December recommending two procedural changes:
- the abolition of supplementary hearings on additional
estimates, with effect from the beginning of 2001 (due to budgetary
and sittings timetables, these hearings this year were separated by
only two weeks from the main annual estimates hearings)
- allowing Senate parliamentary secretaries to represent House of
Representatives ministers (but not Senate ministers) at estimates
hearings, with effect from the beginning of 2002.
SENATE DAILY SUMMARY
This bulletin provides Senate staff and others with
a summary of procedurally significant occurrences in the Senate.
The Senate Daily Summary provides more detailed
information on Senate proceedings, including progress of
legislation, committee reports and other documents tabled and major
actions by the Senate. Like this bulletin, Senate Daily
Summary may be reached through the Senate home page at
www.aph.gov.au/senate.
Inquires
Clerk's Office
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Telephone: (02) 6277 3364; Facsimile (02) 6277 3199
Email: clerk.sen@aph.gov.au