Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the fifth report of 2021 of the Senate Standing Committee for Selection of Bills and seek leave to have the report incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The report read as follows—

MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE

Senator Dean Smith (Government Whip, Chair)

Senator Perin Davey (The Nationals Whip)

Senator Stirling Griff (Centre Alliance Whip)

Senator Pauline Hanson (Pauline Hanson's One Nation Whip)

Senator Rachel Siewert (Australian Greens Whip)

Senator Anne Urquhart (Opposition Whip)

Senator Raff Ciccone

Senator Katy Gallagher

Senator Jacqui Lambie

Senator the Hon James McGrath

Senator Rex Patrick

Senator the Hon Anne Ruston

Secretary: Tim Bryant

SELECTION OF BILLS COMMITTEE

REPORT NO. 5 OF 2021

1. The committee met in private session on Wednesday, 12 May 2021 at 7.14 pm.

2. The committee recommends that—

(a) the provisions of the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Bill 2021 be referred immediately to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 17 June 2021 (see appendix 1 for a statement of reasons for referral); and

(b) the provisions of the Family Law Amendment (Federal Family Violence Orders) Bill 2021 be referred immediately to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 29 July 2021 (see appendix 2 for a statement of reasons for referral).

3. The committee recommends that the following bills not be referred to committees:

4. The committee deferred consideration of the following bills to its next meeting:

Financial Regulator Assessment Authority (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2021

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (Cost Recovery) Bill 2021

5. The committee considered the following bill but was unable to reach agreement:

(Dean Smith)

Chair

13 May 2021

Appendix 1

SELECTION OF BILLS COMMITTEE

Proposal to refer a bill to a committee

Name of bill:

Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Bill 2021

Reasons for referral/principal issues for consideration:

Investigate impact of legislation on screen industry.

Possible submissions or evidence from:

Broadcasting sector Screen Industry

Committee to which bill is to be referred:

Environment and Communications

Possible hearing date(s):

Possible reporting date:

19 October 2021

Rachel Siewert

Appendix 2

SELECTION OF BILLS COMMITTEE

Proposal to refer a bill to a committee

Name of bill:

Family Law Amendment (Federal Family Violence Orders) Bill 2021

Reasons for referral/principal issues for consideration:

This bill was introduced on 24 March 2021, and appears to have been drafted without consultation with a number of key stakeholders, who have contacted us with concerns about the bill.

To ensure Bill is fit for purpose, and to allow stakeholders a chance to provide advice on any problems to be fixed or improvements that could be made.

Possible submissions or evidence from:

Law Council of Australia

Women's Legal Services

Women's Safety NSW

Family Violence Prevention Legal Services

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services

Family Court of Australia

Community Legal Centres Australia

Legal Aid Commissions

Committee to which bill is to be referred:

Sen ate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee

Possible hearing date(s):

July and early August

Possible reporting date:

Friday July 29 2021

Senator Anne Urquhart

I move:

That the report be adopted.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move the amendment that has been circulated in my name:

At the end of the motion, add:

"and, in respect of the Migration Amendment (Clarifying International Obligations for Removal) Bill 2021, the provisions of the bill be referred immediately to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 29 June 2021."

I'd like to offer a few observations, if I might, in support of the motion that the Greens are putting. Firstly, I want colleagues to know that what we're all suffering under here is yet another dirty deal on refugees struck between the ALP and the Liberal-National government. What this bill seeks to do is to undermine a decision made last year by Justice Bromberg, who ruled that the immigration detention of a particular person, known in that court case as AJL20, by the Commonwealth was unlawful and ordered the government to release him from detention immediately. The ruling also entitled AJL20 to claim damages. In that decision, Justice Bromberg further ruled that government cannot hold people in immigration detention indefinitely for no reason—that is, the government must actively pursue an outcome for the detainees they keep locked up, whether that be deportation or release into the community or to a third country. What the government is trying to do is come in here and, with the support of the Labor Party, subvert Justice Bromberg's decision and make it easier for the government to detain people indefinitely in immigration detention. I'll point out that the Labor Party took to the last election a policy of ending indefinite immigration detention onshore in Australia and providing a 30-day limit for immigration detention. Now here is the Labor Party ganging up with the government, doing a secret, dirty deal with the government, to once again do over refugees and make it easier for the government to detain people indefinitely.

That's not all that this bill does. The other thing that this bill does that is extremely troubling is that it includes a new power that would allow the government to reconsider a person's refugee status. So, even if someone has previously been found to be a refugee in Australia, the department or minister could reopen that decision at any time under section 197D(2) of the government's amended act. What this means, of course, is that someone could have been found to be a refugee a decade ago or a couple of decades ago in Australia, they could have built a life here—built a home here, built a career here, established a family here, paid taxes here and lived here, effectively, as an Australian—and then the government could turn around and say: 'Well, the conditions in your home country have changed. It's now safe for you to go back. Ta-ta, off you go. Go back to where you came from.' This is the government's philosophy that now, apparently, has been signed up to by the Labor Party, believing that our protection obligations are only temporary. They are not only temporary. They should be permanent. If somebody is found to be a refugee and has fled because they have a genuine and well-founded fear of persecution, they should get permanent protection and they should be put on a pathway immediately that would allow them ultimately to obtain Australian citizenship and reside here. But that's not what this bill does; it overturns that principle and will allow the government to reopen those refugee status determinations.

Shame on the Liberal Party for bringing this bill on. It is a complex bill that should be referred to a Senate inquiry, which is what our motion is proposing. This bill has the potential to have massive, potentially life-or-death impacts on people's lives. Totally unsurprisingly, once again here are the collaborators in refugee torture, the Australian Labor Party, who invented the last iteration of offshore detention, who have blood on their hands for exiling people to Manus Island and Nauru. They're once again coming into this place and teaming up with the Liberal and National parties in order to do over refugees in this country. Shame on you all for even thinking about it, and another layer of shame on you all for jamming this bill through the parliament with no Senate inquiry and no opportunity for stakeholders to share their views with the Senate, jamming it through effectively without meaningful debate today. This bill was only introduced into the parliament this week, and here it is being jammed through by a motion that will have support from both the Liberal and National parties and the ALP. Seriously, just when you think life for refugees couldn't get any worse in Australia, here we are.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is the amendment moved by Senator McKim be agreed to.