Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Committees

Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee

Alert Digest No. 11

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (13:13): Pursuant to section 35 of the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, I table Alert Digest No. 11 of 2024, including appendices, from the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee. I move:

That the report be published.

Motion agreed to.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (13:14): I move:

That the Council take note of the report.

The Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee was written to by the Shadow Attorney-General to deal with a particular issue, and that is the issue of the so-called bill that we dealt with last sitting week – or did not deal with last sitting week. It was dealt with as an expeditious bill in the lower house, guillotined on the Wednesday and brought here during the week. It could not have been assessed by SARC in a timely way. This is an issue we confronted during the pandemic, where bills were brought to the chambers very quickly and passed through. Michael O’Brien as Shadow Attorney wrote to SARC and actually sought that SARC look at the particular bill in an expeditious way and advise the lower house, the Assembly, on those matters. Now, that did not occur, but I think it is worth putting on record that his correspondence, which he copied to me quite separately, is a matter of importance, and we do need to have a procedure where urgent bills that have impact on human rights are able to be considered by SARC in a timely way.

Motion agreed to.