Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—Firstly, I thank the Manager of Government Business in the Senate for deferring consideration of this motion to give the opposition and other parties more time to consider the implications of this. I want to flag a concern with some of the portfolio allocations. Some of them are fine. Moving Arts from Environment and Communications to Finance and Public Administration does not particularly concern us. It may worry some in the sector. There is certainly some logic in moving Human Services to Community Affairs.

The misgiving we have relates to moving Regional Affairs and Local Government to Finance and Public Administration from the rural and regional affairs committee. I certainly appreciate the government’s rationale for that move—it follows the administrative orders—but I think it needs to be acknowledged that rural and regional issues will be split between two committees. The concern relates to the experience that there has been in the past where the Department of Climate Change was in Finance and Public Administration and, on occasion, senators would find that both that committee and the environment committee would refer them to the other committee on the same matter. We have had similar experiences in the past with Human Services being in Finance and Public Administration and a ping-pong effect occurring between that committee and Community Affairs.

I seek the assurance of the minister that common sense will prevail with the new committee arrangements—that chairs would seek to respect the estimates process and its objective to elicit information and to be as cooperative with senators asking questions as possible, in particular with some of those committees which are swapping between group (a) and group (b) and the other way. There may well be some clashes of interest where senators previously were able to ask questions at different committees on different days. I seek assurance that some flexibility and consideration be given as to how things are ordered within those individual committees and that, certainly for this first incarnation of these new committee arrangements, courtesy and discretion be exercised.

Question agreed to.