Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That at the end of the motion, add, "but, in respect of:

(a) the Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014, the Education and Employment Legislation Committee report by 17 March 2015.".

This amendment has been circulated to the chamber. It asks for a change of date to the Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014 report to 17 March 2015. In moving that amendment we just seek to have consistency in gathering all the information before this place. As we all know, yesterday this place endorsed a references committee inquiry into the impact of this legislation and the reporting date of that is 17 March. So we believe that all the available information about the background, the impact and the engagement of this very important legislation—significant legislation as we know—should be made known to the Senate at around the same time so that we then have an informed debate in this place.

Under the selection of bills process, we would have an earlier date of report for the legislation committee, which would then open up the opportunity for debate in this place on legislation before the references committee, which has terms of reference which are clearly into a range of issues around the legislation and its impact, has completed. So, on that basis, we ask for consistency of reporting date—again, so the Senate has access to all information available.