Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

As Senator Nettle said, this was the subject of comment by the Senate committee. I have covered that in the speech in reply which I incorporated earlier. But I will go over that again.

It is the government’s view that these amendments would largely nullify the objective of the bill to allow the tribunals flexibility in how they give procedural fairness to review applicants. In particular, the proposed amendment removes the ability of the tribunals to control the process by which adverse information is provided to applicants. We believe it introduces a process which would involve greater complexity and would prove to be impractical. It could introduce a process that could be abused and it could result in applicants who wish to deliberately delay the review process simply refusing to respond to adverse information put orally at the hearing, even where they are perfectly capable of doing so at that time. So it is a situation where we believe the flexibility of the tribunal should be maintained, and the tribunals should govern the process by which the adverse information is provided to applicants. I understand that is a fundamental difference from what the Greens are saying, because they are saying the applicants should have that choice. We believe that if that is provided for in the manner that is stated, then the situation could prove to be not only impractical but also somewhat complex.

So, for those reasons, the government opposes these two amendments. I understand the Greens’ amendments cover much the same ground as those to be put by the opposition, and the comments I have made apply to the opposition’s amendments as well.