Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Perhaps one way of providing some reassurance to you is to give you an indication of the organisations that are presently receiving privileges and immunities under the act, because it might describe the scope of the current legislation, and then I can talk a little about how we propose to change it. Presently the act confers privileges on international organisations, and these are organisations that are formed as a consequence of treaty making between states. The international organisations that are currently in receipt of privileges and immunities under the act include the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the International Court of Justice, the Asian Development Bank, the International Mobile Satellite Organization, the International Seabed Authority and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

These are the kinds of organisations that have been offered privileges and immunities, and we do that because it is in our national interest to have these organisations active in Australia and because it's necessary to ensure that these organisations can function independently and effectively across the globe. For example, article 105 of the Charter of the United Nations accords the United Nations the privileges and immunities necessary for the fulfilment of its purpose. So, we have some obligations in a range of treaties to offer these privileges and immunities to these international organisations that work in the international community. The bill maintains the requirement that an eligible organisation must be an international organisation as already defined in the act. It makes an important change though, which is that it allows us to offer religious immunities to an organisation that we're not a member of. As I explained earlier, there are good reasons why we might want to do so.

I conclude by pointing to the safeguard that I referred to earlier in my exchange with Senator Roberts. These questions are established by way of a regulation. They are disallowable instruments and, in addition to, of course, the minister being constrained by the objectives of the act, the Senate has a measure of scrutiny about any decision that's proposed through regulation.