Senator McEwen to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings be authorised to hold a private meeting otherwise than in accordance with standing order 33(1) during the sitting of the Senate on Tuesday, 25 November 2008, from 4 pm.

Senator Hurley to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Economics Committee be authorised to hold a public meeting during the sitting of the Senate on Tuesday, 25 November 2008, from 6 pm, to take evidence for the committee’s inquiry into the provisions of the COAG Reform Fund Bill 2008 and two related bills.

Senator Abetz to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes the comments of various industry figures that the Rudd Government’s so-called consultation with the industry over the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is a ‘one way street’;

(b)

agrees with Tasmanian Labor Premier, Mr David Bartlett, who said that the Prime Minister (Mr Rudd) and the Minister for Climate Change and Water (Senator Wong) have ‘got it wrong’ on their proposed emissions trading scheme; and

(c)

calls on the Rudd Government to make consultation over the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme a ‘two way street’ and ensure it does not drive Australian jobs offshore.

Senator Bob Brown to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes:

(i)

the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety vote to ban the use of highly toxic pesticides which endanger human health and to require the use of safer alternatives for other pesticides, and

(ii)

the committee’s recommendations that farmers should be obliged to inform retailers of the pesticides they use; and

(b)

calls on the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Mr Burke) to respond to the Senate on the committee’s recommendations that pesticide makers must prove their products do not have a harmful effect on bees before they can be authorised, in contrast to Australia’s House of Representatives Standing Committee on Primary Industries and Resources report, More than honey: the future of the Australian honey bee and pollination industries, which has only recommended better labelling of pesticides that affect bees.

Senator Xenophon to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that the GROCERYchoice website is of limited usefulness because its surveys are too infrequent and it does not identify individual supermarkets;

(b)

calls on the Government and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to make the GROCERYchoice surveys and website more useful by:

(i)

providing on the website a weekly list of the 10 cheapest supermarkets in each region, and

(ii)

conducting weekly price surveys on 100 goods in each supermarket to create these lists; and

(c)

considers that if changes to make GROCERYchoice more useful to consumers prove cost-prohibitive or impractical, the project should be abandoned and allocated funding be returned to consolidated revenue.

Senator Eggleston to move on the next day of sitting:

That the time for the presentation of the report of the Economics Committee on the provisions of the Corporations Amendment (Short Selling) Bill 2008 be extended to 6 February 2009.

Senators Hanson-Young and Ludlam to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

25 November 2008 marks the 9th anniversary of White Ribbon Day, the symbol of the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and

(ii)

White Ribbon Day marks the start of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, a global event calling on action to end violence against women;

(b)

recognises:

(i)

the report released by the White Ribbon Foundation of Australia, An assault on our future: The impact of violence on young people and their relationships, and

(ii)

this report identified that one in seven girls aged 12 to 20 have experienced sexual assault or rape, with half a million teenagers revealing they live with violence in the home; and

(c)

calls on the Rudd Government, as part of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, to work constructively to support the introduction of violence prevention programs in all universities and schools as a priority, as part of Australia’s commitment as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Senator Hanson-Young to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

9 December 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and

(ii)

10 December 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

(b)

pays tribute to those Australians who played leading roles in the development and adoption of these important instruments of international law and who, since then, have contributed to their implementation;

(c)

recognises, with regret and disappointment, that in the intervening 60 years, violations of human rights have continued to occur in Australia and in other countries;

(d)

affirms that ‘the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want [is] the highest aspiration of the common people’;

(e)

declares its own ‘faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women’; and

(f)

renews its commitment to the principles contained within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to their promotion within Australia and through Australia’s international policies and activities.

Senator Hanson-Young to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

Thursday, 20 November 2008 marked the day on which the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, and

(ii)

in 2000, world leaders outlined eight Millennium Development Goals, endorsed by 189 nations, to reduce poverty and hunger, to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation;

(b)

recognises:

(i)

that more than 11 million children under the age of five die each year, mostly from preventable diseases, and

(ii)

Target 4a of the Millennium Development Goals aims to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under five mortality rate; and

(c)

calls on the Australian Government to declare its commitment to achieving the international aid target of 0.7 per cent gross national income by 2015 which represents the minimum level required to help developing countries achieve substantial development gains.

Senator Siewert to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

in January 2008, the Humane Society International secured:

(a)

a ruling from the Australian Federal Court that Japanese whaling in Australia’s Whale Sanctuary in Antarctica is illegal, and

(b)

an order that it be stopped, and

(ii)

the Australian Government has taken no action to enforce this ruling; and

(b)

urges the Australian Government to:

(i)

commence legal proceedings in an international court to stop illegal Japanese whaling, and

(ii)

send a vessel into the Southern Ocean to monitor Japanese whaling operations for the 2008-09 whaling season.

Senator Ludwig to move on the next day of sitting:

That, upon its introduction in the House of Representatives, the provisions of the Fair Work Bill 2008 be referred to the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee for inquiry and report by 27 February 2009.

Senator Bob Brown to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate calls on the Government to detail before Parliament rises in 2008, the actions it will take in relation to the concerns about excessive executive salaries expressed by the Prime Minister (Mr Rudd) in both Australian and international forums.