Senate debates
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Notices
Presentation
Senator Allison to move on the next day of sitting:
- That the Senate—
- (a) notes that 14 August 2007 was the parliamentary launch of Securing our Survival: The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, published by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons;
- (b) considers that a nuclear weapons convention would offer the international community the best way to prevent proliferation and nuclear terrorism and achieve disarmament; and
- (c) urges the Government to actively pursue multinational negotiations, leading to a nuclear weapons convention.
Senator Lundy to move on the next day of sitting:
- That the Senate—
- (a) notes that:
- (i) 19 October 2007 is the sixth anniversary of the sinking of the boat known as the Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X (SIEV X), which was bound for Australia and sank with the loss of 353 lives, including 146 children and 142 women,
- (ii) a temporary memorial to the SIEV X victims, featuring painted timber poles to represent the children, women and men who drowned, will be erected on 2 September 2007 at Weston Park, in the Australian Capital Territory, on the Canberra lakeshore and will stay in place for 6 weeks, with the approval of the National Capital Authority (NCA) and the Australian Capital Territory Government,
- (iii) this memorial is supported by people from church, school and community groups from every state and territory in Australia, by the families of the victims, and by the Australian Capital Territory Government, and
- (iv) approval for a permanent memorial to the SIEV X victims is ultimately the responsibility of the Canberra National Memorials Committee (CNMC), chaired by the Prime Minister (Mr Howard);
- (b) calls on the NCA and the CNMC to give permission for the SIEV X memorial project to be established as a permanent memorial on the Canberra lakeshore; and
- (c) expresses its regret and sympathy at the tragic loss of so many innocent lives.
- (a) notes that:
Senator Siewert to move on the next day of sitting:
- That the Senate—
- (a) notes:
- (i) that the policy of restricting Jobs, Education and Training (JET) Child Care Fee Assistance funding to 12 months limits the capacity of single parents to complete most courses of study,
- (ii) the importance of further education opportunities to advance the earning capacity and living standards of single parent families, and
- (iii) that the new restrictions on the JET program are hurting single parents; and
- (b) calls on the Government to lift the restriction of 12 months funding for JET assistance in order to enable single parents to better access education opportunities.
- (a) notes:
Senator Lundy to move on the next day of sitting:
- That the Senate—
- (a) notes that:
- (i) legal deposit is a statutory provision found in the legislation of most countries requiring producers of publications to deposit gratis copies of their works in libraries, usually the national library,
- (ii) in Australia, the Copyright Act 1968 requires Australian publishers to deposit one copy of every publication with the National Library of Australia (NLA),
- (iii) the National Library Act 1960 requires the NLA to develop and maintain a national collection of library material relating to Australia and the Australian people and legal deposit is a major factor enabling the NLA to meet this requirement,
- (iv) legal deposit has ensured that an outstanding collection of Australian publications in print form has been acquired by the NLA on behalf of the nation,
- (v) the NLA is seeking revision of the legal deposit section within the Copyright Act 1968 to encompass publications in non-print form due to the impact of new technologies and the Internet on the creation, publication and dissemination of information, which has been profound in recent years,
- (vi) a significant amount of Australia’s documentary heritage is now published in electronic form and unless the NLA is given a mandate through legal deposit to collect non-print publications, many of these works will be lost to future generations, especially as many electronic works have a very short life-span on the Internet, and
- (vii) the NLA is collecting a very small proportion of Australian electronic publications, as this endeavour requires seeking permission on a publication-by-publication basis, which is very resource intensive and unsustainable into the future;
- (b) calls on the Government, as a matter of urgency, to introduce legislation to extend legal deposit to non-print publications, as such legislation is of strategic importance to the future collection and preservation role of the NLA; and
- (c) recognises that other countries have already acknowledged this and legal deposit legislation has been amended in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Japan and the Scandinavian countries.
- (a) notes that:
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