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

At the outset, I acknowledge for the record Senator Carr's outstanding contribution to this process. I joined this committee only two weeks ago, and the first document with which I was confronted was Senator Carr's 250-page draft report. I did enjoy reading it immensely and I think it reflected a great deal of thought on Senator Carr's part. I would like to put on the record Senator Henderson's and my thanks to all the people who made submissions to this inquiry and all the people who gave testimony. Also, we would like to thank Senator Stoker for her assistance in preparing the dissenting report. I will come to the extent to which it is a dissenting report. It is labelled as such but that perhaps does not reflect the true spirit of it. I will come to that.

Before doing that, I would like to associate myself with the remarks that Senator Carr made with respect to the importance of the committee process in parliament. I absolutely, 100 per cent, agree. I would also like to associate myself with the remarks that Senator Carr made—and I'm sure, Madam Acting Deputy President Fierravanti-Wells, if you were in a position to do so, you probably would as well—with respect to the increasing trend for delegated legislation to be brought into effect without it being subject to appropriate disallowance procedures. I 100 per cent associate myself with those remarks.