Senator Andrew Bartlett
Sunday, March 06, 2005
 
Sittings of the Senate and drug testing in the military
The Senate resumes again tomorrow for two more weeks of sittings. This will be the last sitting until the Budget is brought down on the second Tuesday in May. I’ll fly down to Canberra from Brisbane tonight. This flight is usually full of Qld based MPs and their staffers. If one of these Sunday night flights ever went down in a ball of flame, three quarters of the state would need to have by-elections.

People who want to know what legislation is likely to be debated in the Senate over the next two weeks can find out by clicking here. As I wrote at the start of the last sitting week, this list can vary a lot from what actually ends up happening, although last week we did get through all the Bills listed and the Government ran out of business to bring on for debate, which showed pretty poor skill at organising or running their business in the chamber.

If you want to find out more details on any of the Bills listed for debate, go to this site and click on the name of the relevant Bill. I have responsibility for the second Bill listed, the Defence Amendment Bill 2005. This Bill appeared less than a month ago, only being introduced in the Parliament on the 10th February. It has already been rushed through the House of Representatives (which is nothing unusual), but the Government wants to bring it on for debate in the Senate as soon as its introduced there, which is more unusual.

The Bill is intended to update the random drug testing regime for Defence Personnel (including Reservists). I won’t give my views on it here, as our Party Room won’t discuss it until tomorrow morning. However, the Bills Digest done up by the Parliamentary Library gives some of the history behind the legislation, as well as summarises the possible effect of it. The Bills Digest also raises some issues about possible privacy implications and whether there is scope for independent testing in the event of a dispute.

This is an example of a law which will directly affect over 70 000 people, but will probably only receive a small amount of mainstream media coverage (here’s an item from The Age last month as one example) and is likely to be rushed through both Houses of Parliament in less than a month. Some related comments by Labor’s spokesperson on the issue, Arch Bevis (who is also my local member), can be found by clicking here.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Sunday, March 06, 2005 Permalink
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