Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

I present the Scrutiny digest No. 8 of 2023 of the Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills together with ministerial correspondence. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

As chair of the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, I rise to table the committee's Scrutiny digest No. 8 of 2023. The digest contains the committee's assessment of all bills recently introduced into the parliament. Each bill is assessed against the committee's technical scrutiny principles set out in standing order 24. These principles focus on the effect of proposed legislation on parliamentary scrutiny and individual rights, liberties and obligations. Importantly, the committee has a strong and longstanding commitment to non-partisanship and, accordingly, the digest does not consider the policy merits of bills.

Scrutiny digest No. 8 of 2023 reports on the committee's consideration of 17 bills which were introduced into the parliament during recent sitting weeks, as well as amendments made to five bills. The committee has identified potential scrutiny concerns in relation to seven newly introduced bills. The digest also contains the committee's comments on recent ministerial responses in relation to a further 10 bills. In this digest the committee has continued its work in commenting on matters that raise scrutiny concerns and commend some changes made in response to the committee's requests to the government.

In relation to the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023, the Attorney-General has, in response to a request of the committee, advised that the explanatory materials to the bill will be updated to clarify particular matters the committee raised regarding the trespass on personal rights and liberties and significant matters in delegated legislation. Further, in relation to the Education Legislation Amendment (Startup Year and Other Measures) Bill 2023, an addendum to the explanatory memorandum has been tabled by the Minister for Education which includes key information requested by the committee in relation to the availability of an independent merits review for SY-HELP assistance. The committee welcomes these undertakings and takes this opportunity to highlight the importance of explanatory materials as a point of access to understanding the law, and, if needed, as extrinsic material to assist with interpretation. For these reasons, it's important that explanatory materials provide comprehensive information about changes to the law and provide an explanation to justify the approach in accordance with the committee's guidelines.

The committee also welcomes amendments made to the Nature Repair Market Bill 2023 which require reports on the Clean Energy Regulator's activities during a financial year and reports on certain matters relating to biodiversity certificates purchased by the Commonwealth to be tabled in each house of parliament. These amendments align with comments made by the committee in relation to insufficient parliamentary scrutiny. It is consistent with the committee's view that tabling documents in parliament is important to parliamentary scrutiny, as it alerts parliamentarians to the existence of documents and provides opportunities for debate that are not available where documents are not made public or are only available online.

I encourage all parliamentarians to carefully consider the committee's analysis contained in this Digest. With these comments, I commend the committee's Scrutiny digest No. 8 of 2023 to the Senate.

Question agreed to.