Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

These bills are about transparency. They are about ensuring there is a codification of the detailed requirements currently in ministerial guidelines. I am advised that these are matters such as publishing requirements, voyage notification—a whole range of other issues. The current practice had not previously been articulated in legislation. So this bill actually makes things clearer and more transparent. The decision to incorporate these measures into legislation was in response to longstanding industry concerns that the reliance on ministerial guidelines for decision making has resulted in a lack of transparency and a lack of certainty for industry and has contributed to the decline of the industry. These were key findings of various parliamentary committees, including House of Representatives committees, as far back as 2008.