Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee on Work and Care, be established to inquire into and report on:

(a) the extent and nature of the combination of work and care across Australia and the impact of changes in demographic and labour force patterns on work-care arrangements in recent decades;

(b) the impact of combining various types of work and care (including of children, the aged, those with disability) upon the well-being of workers, carers and those they care for;.

(c) the adequacy of workplace laws in relation to work and care and proposals for reform;

(d) the adequacy of current work and care supports, systems, legislation and other relevant policies across Australian workplaces and society;

(e) consideration of the impact on work and care of different hours and conditions of work, job security, work flexibility and related workplace arrangements;

(f) the impact and lessons arising from the COVID-19 crisis for Australia's system of work and care;

(g) consideration of gendered, regional and socio-economic differences in experience and in potential responses including for First Nations working carers, and potential workers;

(h) consideration of differences in experience of disabled people, workers who support them, and those who undertake informal caring roles;

(i) consideration of the policies, practices and support services that have been most effective in supporting the combination of work and care in Australia, and overseas; and

(j) any related matters.

(2) That the committee present an interim report by 18 October 2022.

(3) That the committee present its final report by the second sitting Tuesday in February 2023.

(4) That the committee consist of seven senators, as follows:

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

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

(c) one nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate.

(5) 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 a committee for the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members of the committee is not present.

(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 in the Senate and as deputy chair a member nominated by the Leader of the Government 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, in the event of an equality of voting, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.

(11) 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 consider.

(12) 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 and the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit.

(13) 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.

(14) That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such papers 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.