Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee into the Abbott Government's Budget Cuts be established to inquire into the effect of cuts or changes in the Commonwealth budget, with interim reports as the committee sees fit and a final report on or before 20 June 2016, with particular reference to:

(a) any reductions in access to services provided by the Commonwealth;

(b) the provision of other services, programs or benefits provided by the Government affected by the budget;

(c) Commonwealth – state relations and the impact of decreased Commonwealth investment on service delivery by the states;

(d) the fairness and efficiency of revenue raising;

(e) the structural budget balance over the forward estimates and the next 10 years;

(f) the reduced investment in scientific research and infrastructure and its impact on future productivity;

(g) public sector job cuts;

(h) the impact of the budget on retirement incomes and pensions;

(i) intergenerational mobility;

(j) the impact of the budget on young people and students;

(k) the impact of the budget on households; and

(l) other matters the committee considers relevant.

(2) That the committee consist of 7 senators, 3 nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, 3 nominated by the Leader of the Opposition 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; and

(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.

(4) That 3 members of the committee constitute a quorum of the committee.

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

(6) That the committee elect as chair a member nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens and as deputy chair, a member nominated by the Leader of the Opposition.

(7) 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.

(8) 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 deputy chair at a meeting of the committee.

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

(10) 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.

(11) 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, and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings, the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit.

(12) 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.

(13) 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.

Question agreed to.