Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the 8th report of the Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, which I am pleased to say Senator Thorp is now part of. I also lay on the table Scrutiny of Bills Alert Digest No. 8.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I seek leave to make a statement on the report.

Leave granted.

I want to highlight the work of the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee. This committee is very useful to this parliament. I often feel that the good work of the committee and its legal adviser is not well enough appreciated in this chamber. The committee over the last couple of meetings and again today has looked at ways that perhaps the work of the committee could be more recognised by members, not only in this chamber but in the other chamber as well. We are going to try a couple of initiatives to make it easier for senators and members of the House of Representatives to use the work of the committee in alerting members and senators to some elements of different pieces of legislation that do infringe upon the things that the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee is charged with looking at—that is, trespassing unduly on personal rights and liberties; making rights, liberties and obligations unduly dependent upon insufficiently defined administrative powers; making rights, liberties and obligations unduly dependent upon non-reviewable decisions; inappropriately delegating legislative powers; and insufficiently subjecting the exercise of legislative powers to parliamentary scrutiny. The committee looks at all of those elements, does not take a partisan view on any of them, but draws to the attention of senators where the committee believes, on advice, that those principles have been breached. I commend the latest report and Alert Digest to senators.

Question agreed to.