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

I move the amendment on sheet 2830:

(1) Page 2 (after line 11), after clause 3, insert:

4 Review of operation of amendments

(1) The Minister must cause an independent review to be conducted of the operation of the amendments made by this Act.

(2) The review must commence as soon as practicable after the end of the period of 3 years after the commencement of this Act.

(3) The persons who undertake the review must give the Minister a written report of the review within 6 months of the commencement of the review.

(4) The Minister must cause a copy of the report of the review to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 15 sitting days of that House after the report is given to the Minister.

Simple in its form, it establishes or inserts in the bill a requirement that there be undertaken an independent review of the new reporting arrangements after the first three years of their operation. The minister would determine who would undertake the review. That review would be then made available to the minister in the form of a written report within a six-month period. That report, following its delivery to the minister, would be made available to the parliament.

This is a very, very simple, prudent public policy initiative that seeks to ensure that, where there might be concerns about the operation of the scheme, where there might be suggested improvements or refinements to better support the purpose of the scheme, they can be undertaken, observed, reported on and contested, where necessary, in a very, very structured way. This amendment was suggested by Senator Scarr in his contribution to the second reading debate on the bill last week.