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

I move an amendment to the motion that the report be adopted:

That the provisions of the:

a. Clean Energy Bill 2011

b. Clean Energy (Charges—Customs) Bill 2011

c. Clean Energy (Charges—Excise) Bill 2011

d. Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011

e. Clean Energy (International Unit Surrender Charge) Bill 2011

f. Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge—Auctions) Bill 2011

g. Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge—Fixed Charge) Bill 2011

h. Clean Energy (Unit Shortfall Charge—General) Bill 2011

i. Clean Energy Regulator Bill 2011

j. Climate Change Authority Bill 2011

k. Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment Bill 2011

l. Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment Bill 2011

m. Steel Transformation Plan Bill 2011

n. Clean Energy (Customs Tariff Amendment) Bill 2011

o. Clean Energy (Excise Tariff Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011

p. Clean Energy (Fuel Tax Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011

q. Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates Amendments) Bill 2011

r. Clean Energy (Tax Laws Amendments) Bill 2011

s. Clean Energy (Household Assistance Amendments) Bill 2011

be referred to the following committees:

Community Affairs Legislation Committee

Economics Legislation Committee

Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Committee

Environment and Communications Legislation Committee

Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee

Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee

Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee

Rural Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee

for inquiry and report by the second sitting day in 2012. The reasons for the referral of each these bills is set out in the section entitled “Reasons for referral”, contained in the appendices of the Selection of Bills Report 13 of 2011.

It is with a great sense of disappointment that I rise to my feet and find myself in the position of having to move an amendment to the motion to take note of the report of the Selection of Bills Committee. One of the great strengths of the Australian Senate is its committees that put partisanship aside and work cooperatively in a spirit of consensus. Those committees are the Scrutiny of Bills Committee, the Privileges Committee, the Senators Interests' Committee, the Regulations and Ordinances Committee and the committee in question today, the Selection of Bills committee, all of which have traditionally operated in a consensual fashion.

The Selection of Bills Committee, as my colleagues know, operates as the clearing house for bills in this place. It ensures that, where colleagues have legitimate reason for recommending that bills be examined by a committee, this happens. Debate about time frames certainly happens within that committee. Debate about which schedules might be referred certainly happens. Debate about which committee is best placed to examine a particular piece of legislation also occurs in that committee. There is give and take, but consensus is achieved. We are very proud that the Senate runs its own race. Whether or not there are House committees or joint committees addressing the same legislation, the Senate reserves its right as an independent chamber, as a house of review, and as a result there are often concurrent inquiries.

In my time on the Selection of Bills Committee there has never been an outright no to a committee reference. In my view the committee, in facing probably its greatest test since I have been in the parliament, has failed. It failed because the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Greens elected to put partisanship and party ahead of supporting the Senate's role of review. I am not entirely surprised by the Australian Labor Party's behaviour, but I am gobsmacked that those great champions of the Senate committee processes, the Australian Greens, sought to deny the opportunity for Senate committees to do their job. This is something that the Australian Democrats never would have supported.

This amendment provides the opportunity for the Australian Greens and the Australian Labor Party to think again. This amendment provides the opportunity for the Senate to set things right, to see the Senate provide the sort of scrutiny that the carbon tax bills warrant and that the Senate is duty bound to provide. Rather than have 19 bills corralled in one stacked joint committee with unreasonable time frames, the coalition's proposal is for all bills to be referred to the eight Senate legislation committees to consider those provisions which are relevant for each committee's jurisdiction. The coalition proposal is also for a reasonable time frame, that committees are to report back by the second sitting day of 2012. There are eight pages of detailed reasoning, which were submitted to the committee to support our proposition.

The Prime Minister, we know, essentially committed electoral fraud with her statement before the last election that there would be no carbon tax under a government she leads. She may end up being technically correct because the carbon tax is not due to take effect until the middle of next year, and it may well be that she is no longer the Prime Minister at that time. So she may end up being technically correct.