Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of Senator Coonan, the Chair of the Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, I present a report and Alert Digest of the Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I seek leave to incorporate a tabling statement in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

SENATE STANDING COMMITTEE FOR THE SCRUTINY OF BILLS

TABLING STATEMENT

Alert Digest No. 6 and Sixth Report of 2011

22 June 2011

In tabling the Committee's Alert Digest No.6 of 2011 and its Sixth Report of 2011, I draw the Senate’s attention to the many detailed responses the Committee received from Ministers address­ing issues of possible concern raised by the Committee. The Committee thanks Ministers for the timely and comprehensive replies, which assist to ensure that legislation passed by the Senate meets the principles outlined in Senate Standing Order 24.

In particular, I will discuss the:

In relation to the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Bill, in response to a request from the Committee, the Minister:

In relation to this last point, to assist industry and members of the public to understand the approach proposed in the bill the Committee will request that the Minister include the key aspects of the additional information be provided in a revised explanatory memorandum.

In relation to the Carbon Credits Bill, the Minister also provided a substantial amount of additional information about the operation of the provisions for which the Committee raised potential scrutiny concerns. The Committee will request that the Minister include the key aspects of this information in a revised explanatory memorandum.

A scrutiny concern previously raised by the Committee in relation to the Customs Serious Drug Detection Bill has been fully addressed by the Minister, and on behalf of the Committee I thank him for this action. The Committee's concern related to lack of a legislative safeguard in the primary legislation to ensure that equipment used to undertake internal body scans was used appropriately. When the bill was considered in the Chamber this morning an amendment to insert a safeguard provision in the bill was introduced and passed.

The Sixth Report also includes responses to issues raised in relation to the Aged Care Bill, Competition and Consumer Amendments Bill (No. 1), the National Consumer Credit Protection (Home Loans and Credit Cards) Bill, the Tax Laws Amendment No. 2 Bill and others.

I would also like to take the opportunity to note the retirement of a member of the Committee, Senator Troeth. Senator Troeth is not only a current member, but also a former chair, of the Committee and her contribution to its work is acknowledged and appreciated.

The full details of the bills I have discussed are available in the alert digest and report I am tabling today, and I commend the Committee’s Alert Digest No. 6 of 2011 and Sixth Report of 2011 to the Senate.

Question agreed to.