Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

  (1)   That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee on the Australia Network service, be established to inquire into and report by 31 January 2012, on the following matters:

  (a)   the management and delivery of the Australia Network service;

  (b)   the 2010 decision to undertake an open tender process for the contract for the operation of the Australia Network service;

  (c)   the conduct of the tender process for the Australia Network service; and

  (d)   the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Amendment (International Broadcasting Services) Bill 2011; and

  (e)   any other related matter.

  (2)   That the committee consist of 6 senators, 3 nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, 2 nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate and 1 nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens.

  (3)   That:

  (a)   participating members may be appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate or any minority party or independent senator;

  (b)   participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of the committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee; and

  (c)   a participating member shall be taken to be a member of the committee for the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members of the committee is not present.

  (4)   That the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that all members have not been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.

  (5)   That the committee elect as chair one of the members nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and, as deputy chair, a member nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens.

  (6)   That the deputy chair shall act as chair when the chair is absent from a meeting of the committee or the position of chair is temporarily vacant.

  (7)   That the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, may appoint another member of the committee to act as chair during the temporary absence of both the chair and the deputy chair at a meeting of the committee.

  (8)   That, in the event of an equally divided vote, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.

  (9)   That the committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of 3 or more of its members and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to examine.

  (10)   That the committee and any subcommittee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of Representatives.

  (11)   That the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President.

  (12)   That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such documents and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public.

Notice given 23 November 2011

I seek leave to make a short statement.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night we witnessed an extraordinary situation where the government's guillotine stopped its own minister from being able to make a ministerial statement. That ministerial statement was then tabled in this place in a manner that provided no opportunity, as ministerial statements usually do, for the opposition to respond. That is of grave concern because the ministerial statement made by Senator Conroy once again poses far more questions than it does answers. Those questions can only be transparently and rightly dealt with through a proper, open parliamentary inquiry. This is exactly what select committees were established for, and I would urge, particularly given the extraordinary nature of Senator Conroy's statement, and the content of that statement that has already been highlighted by others as false or misleading in some ways, that the chamber support this motion.

Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a brief statement.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will not take up the full two minutes. I have some sympathy for this motion that was proposed by Senator Birmingham earlier this week, and I apologise to Senator Birmingham for keeping him in limbo. I wanted to see whether the minister was proposing to make a statement. I also agree that the timing is highly unfortunate. I would have appreciated more time, if it had been tabled today, to put some comments more firmly on the record.

What Senator Birmingham has not recognised in his comments is that the minister announced last night that the Auditor-General is being called in, which I think is an entirely appropriate course of action and should probably have occurred well before now. This issue is vexed and has major commercial players who feel aggrieved, as well as including our national broadcaster in the mix. Rather than further politicising this issue with a select committee to rake over what has occurred, it is appropriate that a senior and neutral official such as the Auditor-General take carriage of the issue, recognising also that the Australian Federal Police is involved in investigating the source of the leaks. With some sympathy for the reasoning behind this select committee motion, the Australian Greens will not be supporting it, for those reasons. Question put:

That the motion (Senator Birmingham's) be agreed to.

The Senate divided. [12:37]

(The President—Senator Hogg)

Question negatived.