Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Acting Deputy President, I seek leave of the Senate to make some comments on the document that Senator Eggleston was just talking about—the Northern Australian one. I appreciate I have missed the call, but I seek leave of the Senate to make a few comments.

Leave granted.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Remember: we're being nice!

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know Senator Siewert is a nice person, and I very much appreciate her indulgence. She is a member of the committee looking into Northern Australia and, dare I say it, making a valuable contribution—

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Now I'm in trouble!

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I don't often say that about the Greens political party. But Senator Siewert has made a useful contribution.

I agree with my colleague Senator Eggleston in what he said. I just wanted to briefly, though, express one bit of concern that I have with the report, and that is that the report indicates that the time for tabling of the report is going to be extended beyond the date that was determined when this Senate agreed to set up that committee. The reason given is that Cyclone Ita—which was hardly a cyclone, I might say, just a little bit of a blow—disrupted the work of the committee in going to the gulf area of Queensland. But I accept that we did not know how the cyclone was going to go, so I have no problem with the fact that the visit was cancelled and will now be held in early July. Because of that, I appreciate that the time for tabling would have to be extended a little. But I am concerned if the whole process is going to be blown out further than was set out in the resolution setting up this committee.

The government's pre-election commitment was to have a government white paper issued within 12 months of the date of the election, that is, Friday, 8 September 2014. I am concerned if this blowout of the date for the tabling of the joint select committee's report blows the whole process out. If it does, it will get closer to the end of the year, when we will be told perhaps that it is too close to Christmas and there are other important things to be done, and then that will blow over until February-March next year, before the government's white paper comes out. The processes do not exactly align; the government can still issue its white paper as promised within 12 months of the election. But if it does that and the joint select committee has not yet tabled its report then clearly the government's white paper will be done without the benefit of the work done by the joint select committee. I acknowledge that the committee under my friend and colleague Mr Warren Entsch has done a good job. As I indicated, Senator Siewert has been part of it, as have many other senators and members, and the committee has done a lot of good work, a lot of useful work. It is work that is not terribly new and I think a lot of the issues we already knew about, but nevertheless it has been part of a process of consultation and that cannot be bad. But if it blows out then I fear that perhaps the white paper will not be delivered when it should have been and might get further blown out. If it gets blown out too much further you will get the comment that it is too close to the election, let us leave it till the next election, and it will never happen.

I have expressed a view before that we did go through this process back in 2001, a very similar process, and that got blown out and blown out until it was eventually forgotten by successive governments. I do not want that to happen again. So, whilst the interim report is innocuous enough in what it says, it does relate well to the things the committee has done to date and I congratulate Mr Entsch and the committee members on the work they have done. But I am concerned at the suggestion that the reporting date will at some time be sought to be extended. That is a matter which will come before this chamber and which I speak on at the time, but I would hope that the request to extend is for a very limited and short period of time so that it does not interfere with the process and does not in any way interfere with the government's commitment to have its white paper out within 12 months of the last election.

Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For the information of senators, I advise that the committee reports required by the orders of the day, numbers 2, 4-8 and 16-18, have now been tabled.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald, did you seek leave to continue your remarks?

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I should have, and now seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted.