Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

There are amendments that have been circulated in my name to the Customs Amendment (Product Specific Rule Modernisation) Bill 2019. I will be brief in speaking to these amendments. I did ventilate Labor's reason for moving these amendments in my second reading speech. As several speakers have noted in this debate, the effect of this legislation would be to take what is currently a disallowable instrument by the parliament and make that decision about rules of origin and product specific rules a decision of some bureaucrat. It would take away the oversight of this parliament.

We are talking about free trade. It must be fair trade. The community must have confidence that its parliament and its representatives have the opportunity to ensure it is fair trade. Not maybe once every five years and not possibly through an inquiry that you might get up through a committee; in fact, we must have the ongoing right to ensure that the free trade agreements and the rules that govern them remain the province of this chamber, this parliament, to disallow if necessary.

The effect of Labor's amendment today is to reinsert the parliament's right to disallow certain rules under this legislation. As Senator Lambie just said in her speech, any time the government—this government in particular—says it is just making some technical changes, we really shouldn't worry ourselves about it, it'll be streamlined and all so much better, we need to be alert to the fact that they are taking away the oversight of this parliament. The effect of the amendment that has been circulated is to reinsert that oversight by members of this parliament. So I ask members—particularly those who have expressed a view that the parliament should retain that oversight function—to support the amendment.

By leave—I move the amendments circulated in my name together:

(1) Schedule 1, item 5, page 3 (line 18) to page 4 (line 7), to be opposed.

(2) Schedule 1, items 9 to 13, page 4 (line 28) to page 8 (line 23), to be opposed.

(3) Schedule 1, items 19 to 21, page 10 (line 23) to page 13 (line 18), to be opposed.

(4) Schedule 1, items 27 and 28, page 15 (line 23) to page 17 (line 32), to be opposed.

(5) Schedule 1, items 34 and 35, page 19 (line 23) to page 22 (line 26), to be opposed.

(6) Schedule 1, items 41 and 42, page 24 (line 23) to page 27 (line 16), to be opposed.

(7) Schedule 1, items 47 and 48, page 29 (line 18) to page 32 (line 2), to be opposed.