Chapter 1Introduction

1.1Since 1981 the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills has scrutinised all bills against a set of non-partisan accountability standards to assist the Parliament in undertaking its legislative function. These standards focus on the effect of proposed legislation on individual rights, liberties and obligations, and on parliamentary scrutiny. The scope of the committee's scrutiny function is formally defined by Senate standing order 24, which requires the committee to scrutinise each bill introduced into the Parliament, or to scrutinise Acts of the Parliament, to determine whether they:

(i)trespass unduly on personal rights and liberties;

(ii)make rights, liberties or obligations unduly dependent upon insufficiently defined administrative powers;

(iii)make rights, liberties or obligations unduly dependent upon non-reviewable decisions;

(iv)inappropriately delegate legislative powers; or

(v)insufficiently subject the exercise of legislative power to parliamentary scrutiny.

1.2The work of the committee may be broadly described as an assessment of bills against a set of non-partisan accountability standards that focus on the effect of proposed legislation on individual rights, liberties and obligations, and on parliamentary scrutiny.

Overview of the Annual report

1.3This Annual report provides a summary of the committee's work for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2022. The annual report is set out in four chapters:

Chapter 1 is an introduction to the report;

Chapter 2 discusses the committee's mode of operation, publications and resources;

Chapter 3 sets out statistics relating to the committee’s work in 2022; and

Chapter 4 provides case studies of bills scrutinised by the committee in 2022, including outcomes received by the committee.