Category Archives: Committee Inquires

Inquiry on disability, health and our migration laws (after nine months gestation)

August 19, 2009 – 11:09 am

A public and political outcry in November last year, regarding a Doctor being  denied Australian permanent residency because his son had Down Syndrome, led to the Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, announcing a Parliamentary inquiry into the health requirements in the Migration Act. Nearly six months later, on May 15 this year, the terms of reference [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in health, human rights, immigration | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Senate’s climate change inquiries

March 14, 2009 – 10:38 pm

Last week, the Senate established two Inquiries into greenhouse issues. One, to be conducted by the Senate’s Economics Committee, will look at the exposure drafts of the government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation. It is due to report by 14 April when the Senate is out of session.  The other inquiry will be conducted by [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in climate change, environment | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Fishing for differences

September 19, 2008 – 12:06 am

Following on from my previous post on the conflicting message of a merged Liberal National Party in Queensland and a determinedly differentiating National Party at federal level, is another small but rather telling example. The recently tabled Senate Committee report into legislation amending the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act contained a dissenting report from the [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in federal parliament, Liberal Party | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

The proposed anti-pokies laws

September 17, 2008 – 10:27 pm

A commenter on a previous post asked a question about where the various parties might stand on Nick Xenophon’s “pokies Bill” which seeks to ban ATMs from poker machine venues.  I thought I would answer it through a specific post, so I could detail some of the current activity surrounding this issue. Senator Xenophon’s pokies [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Tagged | Comments (3)