Senator Andrew Bartlett
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
 
Immigration Committee Hearings Commence
One of the frustrations of being in a smaller party is trying to cover so many issues (although it also means greater personal freedom to range across issues than the people in the larger parties get). This frustration gets compounded at the time of Estimates Committees, when four different committees sit at the same time.

Today, I've been wanting to gather information about immigration and refugee issues (on the Legal and Constitutional Committee), quarantine, mulesing and live animal exports (on the Rural and Regional Affairs Committee) and some environment issues (on the Environment, Communications, IT and the Arts Committee). Some of my colleagues are covering other areas as well, and some questions can be put on notice (i.e. in writing) but the difficulty of wanting to be in three places at once remains.

Given that immigration and refugee issues have been a key focus of mine for so long, and the widespread interest and debate on the Cornelia Rau case, I'm giving priority to the Legal & Con Committee.

That Committee continued to cover matters from the Attorney-General area through the morning. Immigration matters did not come on until just before 12 noon (just as quarantine comes on in the Rural Committee, so I've had to forgo questions on that).

The Immigration Minister, Senator Vanstone, started out with a long statement about the Rau case and initial questions went straight to that matter. The significant nature of the matter was demonstrated by the presence of Labor's Senate Leader, Chris Evans, along with myself, Liberal Senator and Committee Chair Marise Payne , Labor's Senate person on immigration issues, Joe Ludwig, NT Senator Nigel Scullion and SA Labor Senator Linda Kirk. All of these people, apart from Chris Evans, regularly attend Estimates hearings for refugee matters. Even Green Party Senator Kerry Nettle was present. As far as I'm aware, this is the first time ever that a Green Party Senator has come to an Estimates Committee hearing on refugee matters, so it shows how seriously they are treating this issue.

The hearings and questions are continuing as I write. There's plenty of other immigration issues that will be pursued once questions have finished on the Rau issue. Hansard draft transcripts of the hearings are usually available by the next day. You should be able to access them by going to this part of the Parliament House website.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Tuesday, February 15, 2005 Permalink
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