Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee into Jobs for the Future in Regional Areas, be established to inquire and report on the following matters:

(a) new industries and employment opportunities that can be created in and around thermal coal mining communities and regions:

(i) as automated mining and transport technologies replace jobs over coming years, and

(ii) as domestic production and exports decline to keep global warming to levels safe for human life at or below 1.5 degrees;

(b) the number of existing jobs in regional areas in clean energy technology and ecological services and their future significance;

(c) lessons learned from structural adjustments in the automotive, manufacturing and forestry industries and energy privatisation and their impact on labour markets and local economies;

(d) the importance of long-term planning to support the diversification of supply chain industries and local economies;

(e) measures to guide the transition into new industries and employment, including:

(i) community infrastructure to attract investment and job creation,

(ii) the need for a public authority to manage the transition,

(iii) meaningful community consultation to guide the transition, and

(iv) the role of vocational education providers, including TAFE, in enabling reskilling and retraining;

(f) the use of renewable resources in Northern Australia to build a clean energy export industry to export into Asia; and

(g) any related matters.

(2) That the committee present its final report on or before 4 December 2019.

(3) That the committee consist of 5 senators as follows:

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

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

(c) 1 nominated the Leader of the Australian Greens.

(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; and

(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.

(5) If a member of the committee is unable to attend a meeting of the committee, that member may in writing to the chair of the committee appoint a participating member to act as a substitute member of the committee at that meeting, and if the member is incapacitated or unavailable, a letter to the chair of a committee appointing a participating member to act as a substitute member of the committee may be signed on behalf of the member by the leader or whip of the party or group on whose nomination the member was appointed to the committee.

(6) 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.

(7) That the committee elect as chair the member nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens and as deputy chair a member nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

(8) 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.

(9) 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.

(10) That 3 members of the committee constitute a quorum of the committee.

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

(12) That the committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of 3 or more of its members, and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to examine.

(13) 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.

(14) 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.

(15) 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.