Senator Andrew Bartlett
Sunday, June 19, 2005
 
The Final Four Days

Senators and staff are flying into Canberra for the final sitting week before the Howard Government takes control of the Senate.

The final list of legislation proposed for debate has been sent around. There are 17 packages of Bills, but very little that is politically contentious other than a Workplace Relations Bill (which I suspect will end up not being debated anyway). Another interesting Bill is one that seeks to ban the use of the internet to advocate suicide. Although it has Labor's support, it may also end up being deferred until August if we get tight for time, as it is not particularly urgent. I don't support the Bill, but it does raise some complex issues which I feel many people on both sides of the argument do not really acknowledge.

Interestingly, despite 'tough talk' from the Government about taking tough action to reduce delays on court appeals on migration matters (an example of this tosh is in this article from The Age), the legislation they say will achieve this has been put off until August even though Labor has not said it will oppose the Bill. Of course, the legislation is probably unconstitutional or inoperable in part and will probably increase delays rather than reduce them, as has happened with other Bills in the past that have sought to prevent people appealing to the Courts on migration matters, but doublespeak seems to be compulsory when the Government talks about migration matters.

I hope to be successful in getting a broad Senate Inquiry established into a range of matters relating to the Immigration Act and Department. I will also be introducing an updated version of a private Senators Bill to do with Animal Welfare which I first introduced a couple of years ago.

The end of the Senate career of Brian Harradine will be a highlight of the week. He was first elected in 1975 and is the longest serving Independent in Senate history. His final speech to the Senate is due to start at 6.00pm on Tuesday. People who can get the radio broadcasts of parliament should be able to hear it then. If not, the Senate can always be heard online by going to this page.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Sunday, June 19, 2005 Permalink
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