Senator Andrew Bartlett
Saturday, March 12, 2005
 
Avalanche
Another Senate sitting week is over. There are now 14 sitting days left before the Government takes control of the whole Parliament, with 4 of those days happening next week.

The Senate has passed a much larger number of Bills than usual, given we have only had 7 sitting days so far this year - with over 30 Bills passed, it's almost been an avalanche. This is mostly due to the Government putting up mainly non-contentious legislation, although the recognition of the imminent Government takeover has played a bit of a part too.

It was pleasing to see agreement was reached with both Labor and Liberal on the Democrats' proposal to have a broad Senate Inquiry into mental health issues.. This will hopefully be a positive process to come out of the tragic case of Cornelia Rau that I’ve written some entries on previously. If you have any experiences or views on the issue, I'd encourage you to make a submission.

On Monday, we will resume debating the Bill that will abolish ATSIC. The Committee looking into issues surrounding this reported earlier in the week. It is a pity that the controversies surrounding ATSIC’s leadership has obscured some of the Government’s major failings on indigenous issues.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Saturday, March 12, 2005 Permalink
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