Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present Scrutiny digest No. 12 of 2024 of the Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

As chair of the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, I rise to speak to the tabling of the committee's Scrutiny digest No. 12 of 2024.

The digest contains the committee's consideration of 14 bills introduced between 9 and 12 September and amendments passed during this period. The committee has commented on five bills and three amendments.

A number of these bills seek to include a variety of matters in delegated legislation, including in relation to anti-money laundering provisions, the Guarantee of Origin scheme and the wage increase for early childhood education and care workers.

Where matters are left to legislative instruments, the committee expects a sound justification for their inclusion in delegated legislation in the explanatory memorandum accompanying the bill. As delegated legislation is not subject to the full range of parliamentary scrutiny that primary legislation is subject to, the committee is concerned that matters intended to be included in delegated legislation are matters that should instead be debated in parliament. This is particularly the case when the matters relate to Commonwealth funding, provisions that create exemptions from the operation of primary legislation and the inclusion of offence or penalty provisions.

For example, the Future Made in Australia (Guarantee of Origin) Bill 2024, which is currently before the Senate, and the consequential amendments bill would provide that much of the Guarantee of Origin scheme is administered by rules and regulations, including a provision allowing the rules to prescribe a circumstance where a requirement under the bill does not apply. The Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024 would enable the criteria by which a grant of public money will be awarded to be set out in non-legislative guidance. Finally, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2024 would allow for regulations to prescribe certain elements of exceptions that apply to an offence created by this bill. In all of these instances, the explanatory memoranda failed to include an explanation of why these measures were necessary and appropriate for inclusion in delegated legislation, and as such the committee is seeking advice from relevant ministers.

Finally, I wish to highlight the committee's comments in relation to the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, which seeks to make a number of amendments to the existing offences of targeting a group or member of a group based on certain protected attributes. It does so by seeking to expand the list of protected attributes, lowering the fault element for existing offences, introducing new offences relating to the threat of violence or force and seeking to remove defences of good faith. By removing these defences this removes existing safeguards that aim to ensure the offences are not overly broad, noting the potential impact of these offences on freedom of expression. The committee considers it has not been established why it is necessary to remove the defences entirely from these provisions without providing the court with the discretion to consider the circumstances in which the speech was made and has sought further advice from the Attorney-General in relation to this very important and very sensitive matter.

With these comments, I commend the committee's Scrutiny digest 12 of 2024 to the Senate.

Debate adjourned.