Senate debates

Tuesday, 1 December 2020

Bills

Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Bill 2020, Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2020; In Committee

1:53 pm

Photo of Marise PayneMarise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Rice. The DFAT website has been updated with information that is intended to assist stakeholders to understand their compliance obligations. That currently includes fact sheets. It will soon include Q and A documents, subject to the passage of the legislation. It will also include information, such as the means for notifying the minister of arrangements, further to that which is already on the website.

We will be working very closely with stakeholders on the implementation of the scheme. That is the purpose of establishing the foreign relations task force within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It's the purpose of the engagements that DFAT has had with the sector in the consultations and discussions on the provisions of the bill. What we are doing is making sure that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working very closely with key entities, both the representative bodies and the universities themselves, to ensure the smoothest introduction of the scheme that we possibly can.

Comments

No comments