Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

I do acknowledge Senator Shoebridge for that contribution, as I acknowledged, when I originally raised the issue, Senator McKim's concern that a registry be maintained in the state of Tasmania. From my reading of the legislation and from the answers which have been given by the minister, who correctly, I should say, referred to the current Administrative Review Tribunal Act, it's up to the CEO as to whether or not a registry remains, for example, in Tasmania. The CEO could change their mind and say, 'I've decided, for efficiency purposes, I'm going to close the registry in Tasmania.' It's completely unacceptable that a chief executive officer of the Administrative Review Tribunal should have the discretion to close a registry in any of our states or territories. It is incredibly important that those registries are maintained in every state and territory across Australia.

I am happy for us to proceed with the question on the government's amendments but I would ask that we deal with one of the items separately, namely amendment (4).