For the sitting period 8 to 10 October 2024

Download Procedural Information Bulletin No. 385 (PDF 123KB)

The Senate

On 10 October the Senate agreed to a resolution setting out its days of meeting for 2025. The two Houses are scheduled to meet from 4 February 2025, with the 2025-26 Budget to be handed down on 25 March to accommodate an election that must* be held before the end of May. The timing of the election is a matter for the Prime Minister, within parameters set by the Constitution and the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

* Technically, separate elections could be held for the Senate (by late May 2025) and the House of Representatives (as late as August or September 2025). In practice, that is extremely unlikely.

Legislation

Four bills were passed without amendment under a guillotine on 10 October. These included an omnibus crimes legislation bill, a bill to expand a Trans-Pacific partnership agreement and two AUKUS-adjacent bills dealing with naval nuclear power. In passing those last bills the Senate rejected numerous amendments from crossbench senators. The naval nuclear power bills join the list of significant bills passed by the Senate in this Parliament without any debate.

During the early part of the week the Senate debated the Future Made in Australia bills, which are not currently supported by the Opposition, the Australian Greens and some other crossbench senators. Those senators combined to remove the bills from Thursday’s guillotine list.

On 9 October, opposition and crossbench senators combined to force a vote on an Australian Greens bill to make price gouging illegal, before government and opposition senators combined to vote it down.

Parliamentary standards

In the previous sittings, the Parliament passed a bill to establish the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission (IPSC) to investigate alleged breaches of behavioural codes for members of parliament and their staff and behaviour standards for Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces. The Senate and the House this week adopted the relevant codes by way of a joint resolution, initiated in the Senate on 9 October. The Senate also adopted minor amendments to standing orders to facilitate the consideration by the Privileges Committee of matters that may be referred by the IPSC, and consideration by the Senate of related reports from the Privileges Committee.

The IPSC legislation also established the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Parliamentary Standards to oversee the new commission, bringing the total number of joint statutory committees to nine. On 10 October the Senate agreed to a resolution of appointment for the new committee, transmitted by the House, setting out matters relating to its powers and proceedings. A curious aspect of the legislation is that the members of the joint committee must be drawn from the Privileges committees of each House.

Reports

A small number of committee reports were tabled, including two bill reports by the Education and Employment Legislation Committee on the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024 and the Universities Accord (National Student Ombudsman) Bill 2024. That committee had recently tabled out of sitting a third bill report also relating to the education sector, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024.

In addition, the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee tabled its report on the Murdoch Media Inquiry Bill 2023, a private senators bill, and the Senate Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence (AI) tabled an interim report, focusing on the impact of AI on democratic and electoral processes in Australia.

As part of their regular scrutiny practice, the three legislative scrutiny committees – the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee and the Senate Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation Committee – each tabled a report examining various bills and instruments.

Two joint committee reports were also tabled, by the Joint Standing Committee on Migration (Migration, pathway to nation building) and the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (221^st report – BBNJ Agreement).

Several other reports were presented out of sitting, including the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee report on a private senators’ bill that would establish a Commission of Inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities, and the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee report on the Veterans’ Entitlements Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Bill 2024.

Inquiries

Four bills were referred to legislation committees through the Selection of Bills Committee process, all with short November deadlines. The Senate also considered two motions for references committee inquiries (on large-scale battery energy storage systems and Aboriginal Land Councils), however neither was successful.

Orders and explanations

The Senate agreed to 14 new orders for documents in the sitting period, including orders relating to online gambling (9 October) and Department of Treasury modelling on potential changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax (9 October). One proposed order for documents was defeated, relating to the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Land Council (9 October). An order to require an explanation from the Minister for Indigenous Australians on the matter was also defeated on the same day.

Documents were provided in response to 21 orders, including in relation to:

• a project to build the PsiQuantum quantum computer (9 October; order partially complied with, with claims of public interest immunity raised in respect of the remainder on the grounds that disclosure would damage commercial interests, prejudice international relations, or on the basis that information related to Cabinet processes); and
• data on higher education student visas (10 October; order complied with in full).

On 10 October, the first quarterly response was tabled in accordance with the continuing order for data on deaths in custody (see Bulletin 384). While data on deaths in custody by age group and month was provided on a national basis, the Attorney-General raised public interest immunity claims in respect of the remaining aspects of the order (disaggregation by state/territory would breach existing data agreements, and further disaggregation could breach individual privacy and confidentiality).

The cumulative list of orders and responses can be found on the Senate's business pages.

Dynamic Red – updated continuously during the sitting day, the Dynamic Red displays the results of proceedings as they happen.

Senate Daily Summary – a convenient summary of each day’s proceedings in the Senate, with links to source documents.

Like this bulletin, these documents can be found on the Senate website: www.aph.gov.au/senate

Inquiries: Clerk’s Office (02) 6277 3350