Rex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee on the Multi-Jurisdictional Management and Execution of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, be established to inquire and report on the following matters:

(a) responsibilities in relation to the management and execution of the Murray Darling Basin Plan consistent with the objects of the Water Act 2007, in particular:

  (i) Commonwealth responsibilities,

  (ii) state and territory responsibilities, and

  (iii) areas of uncertainty or potential conflict in respect of responsibilities;

(b) the effects, positive or negative or otherwise, of the different approaches of the states and territories to water resource management in the Murray Darling Basin including, but not limited to:

  (i) legislation, regulations and rules,

  (ii) management and administration, including differences in management organisations,

  (iii) measuring, monitoring and compliance,

  (iv) enforcement, and

  (v) openness and transparency;

(c) complications in respect of basin-wide or cross jurisdiction oversight, including the oversight roles and jurisdictional limitations of:

  (i) state, territory and federal parliaments,

  (ii) state, territory and federal courts, and

  (iii) state, territory and federally-instituted inquiries and Royal Commissions;

(d) any bill related to the Murray Darling Basin referred to the committee; and

(e) any related matters.

(2) That the committee present its final report on or before 1 November 2020.

(3) That the committee consist of 6 senators:

(a) 2 nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate;

(b) 2 nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate;

(c) 1 nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens; and

(d) Senator Patrick.

(4) That:

(a) participating members may be appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate or any minority party or independent senator;

(b) participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of the committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee; and

(c) a participating member shall be taken to be a member of the committee for the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members of the committee is not present.

(5) That the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that not all members have been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.

(6) That the committee elect as chair one of the members nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, and Senator Patrick as deputy chair.

(7) That the deputy chair shall act as chair when the chair is absent from a meeting of the committee or the position of chair is temporarily vacant.

(8) That the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, may appoint another member of the committee to act as chair during the temporary absence of both the chair and deputy chair at a meeting of the committee.

(9) That, in the event of an equally divided vote, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.

(10) That the committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of three or more of its members, and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to examine.

(11) That the committee and any subcommittee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of Representatives, and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings, the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit.

(12) That the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President.

(13) That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such documents and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public.

Question agreed to.