Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

As Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances, I present the Delegated Legislation Monitor for 18 September 2019and move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Today I was advised that—and I believe a similar pattern is established in regard to the Scrutiny of Bills Committee—on the records going back 30 years there has not been a divided vote on either of those committees. I just make that observation. There's been a very high level of bipartisanship operating on the Regulations and Ordinances Committee, and I believe similarly on the Scrutiny of Bills Committee.

As the chair of the committee has previously noted in this parliament, this committee has resolved to take a stronger, more targeted approach to its work with a view to enhancing the parliamentary oversight and control of delegated legislation. This includes the use of disallowance processes to highlight and prosecute the committee's more significant scrutiny concerns. Consistent with this approach, on 1 August the chair of the committee acting on the committee's behalf gave notice of motion to disallow the Water Amendment (Murray-Darling Basin Agreement—Basin Salinity Management) Regulations 2018. The committee's decision to place the notice was based on serious and unresolved concerns that the instrument incorporated certain documents enforced from time to time without the legal authority to do so.

I'm pleased to report that since the notice of motion to disallow was placed, the minister for water resources has advised the committee that he will seek to progress amendments to the Water Act to remove doubt about this issue. In light of the minister's undertaking, the committee has resolved to withdraw the notice of motion to disallow the instrument. The committee will continue to monitor the minister's undertaking to ensure that it's actually implemented.

This matter highlights the effectiveness of the committee in promoting transparency and accountability in relation to delegated legislation. The committee thanks the minister and the department for the respect that they have shown the committee and for their willingness to engage constructively with the committee's scrutiny concern. The committee trusts that the satisfactory resolution of this matter will provide an example to other ministers and agencies to guide their engagement with the committee.

I want to emphasise that the process by which the growing number of delegated legislative instruments have been used to avoid parliamentary scrutiny is a matter of deep concern and action is being taken to address this issue. I trust that this message is understood and received, and I repeat: this is a committee that operates on a bipartisan basis, and has done for 30 years, which the records identify—I'm sure it's much longer than that. With these comments, I commend the committee's Delegated Legislative Monitor No. 6 of 2019 to the Senate.

Question agreed to.