Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances, I give notice that, 15 sitting days after today, I shall move:

That Student Assistance (Public Interest Certificate Guidelines) Determination 2008, made under paragraph 356(1)(a) of the Student Assistance Act 1973, be disallowed. [F2008L01262]

I seek leave to incorporate in Hansard a short summary of the matter raised by the committee.

Leave granted.

The document read as follows—

Student Assistance (Public Interest Certificate Guidelines) Determination 2008

The Determination specifies guidelines for the exercise of the power of the Secretary to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to disclose information in the public interest.

Paragraph 10(c) of this Determination permits relevant information to be disclosed if it is necessary to brief a Minister in relation to issues that are, or will be, raised publicly by the person to whom the relevant information relates, so that the Minister can correct, amongst other things, ‘an incorrectly held opinion’. The Committee sought clarification on the intended meaning of this term. The Minister advised that the provision ‘an incorrectly held opinion’ is intended to refer to the situation where opinions are formed on the basis of incorrect information. Given this explanation, the Committee has written to the Minister seeking an amendment to the Guidelines to make this clear by referring to ‘opinions formed on the basis of incorrect information’ rather than ‘incorrectly held opinions’.

Senator Milne to move on the next day of sitting:

That there be laid on the table, no later than 4 pm on 4 September 2008, the ‘alternative, more business-friendly formula for providing assistance to trade-exposed, emissions-intensive companies’ circulated to the business community by either the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism or the office of the Minister for Resources and Energy (Mr Ferguson) ahead of the roundtable meetings on 29 August 2008.

Senator Ludlam to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes the European Union’s concern regarding Russia’s aggressive military actions in Georgia;

(b)

notes:

(i)

Prime Minister Putin’s long-standing policy of suppression of dissent in Russia,

(ii)

Russia’s nuclear cooperation with Iran through the supply of reactor technology and nuclear fuel for the facilities at Bushehr,

(iii)

the fragile state of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty due to the Nuclear Weapons States not fulfilling their legal obligation to disarm,

(iv)

the Russian Chief of the Armed Forces, General Yuri Baluevsky has claimed the right to use nuclear weapons ‘preventatively’, and

(v)

that it is Australia’s stated aim to be a ‘responsible supplier of uranium’; and

(b)

calls on the Government to immediately repudiate the Australia-Russia uranium agreement signed by former Prime Minister Howard and the then President Putin in 2007.

Senator Milne to move on the next day of sitting:

That there be laid on the table, no later than 4 pm on 4 September 2008, the report of the Strategic Review of Climate Change Policies recently completed by Mr Roger Wilkins, AO, with the support by a secretariat located in the Department of Finance and Deregulation.

Senator Bob Brown to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes, with grave concern, the distress of the people affected by floods in India and Nepal; and

(b)

extends the sincere wish that the millions of people harmed by the floods find rapid relief and recovery from this disaster.