Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Some very wise words there by Senator Scarr. I'm sure Senator Carr would be very proud of what you had to say today, given his longstanding contribution on such matters.

On a different note, I present the report of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee entitled National Emergency (2022 New South Wales Floods) Declaration 2022 together with the accompanying documents. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

And I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As deputy chair of the committee I am going to make a few comments in relation to the report. Can I compliment Senator Green in relation to her chairing of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. There are serious issues of scrutiny in relation to the National Emergency Declaration Act 2020 in relation to issues relating to temporal proportionality with respect to declarations of emergency, the scope and proportionality of ministerial determinations and a number of other matters. Those are detailed in the report. There was a previous committee report in relation to this legislation where comments were made by members of the Labor Party, then in opposition, the Greens and also coalition members. I've spoken about these issues quite widely. Senator Ciccone referred to Senator Carr, and Senator Carr and I were of exactly the same mind in relation to these issues—that any legislation dealing with declarations of emergency needs to be carefully considered and have appropriate checks and balances, and that includes oversight of executive determinations. This place, the Senate, also has a role of oversight in that regard. I wholeheartedly support this report and compliment all the members of the committee with respect to their diligence in relation to its preparation.