Australian Senate committees

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The committees of the Australian Senate are committees of Senators, established by the Australian Senate, for purposes determined by that body. The committees fall into five categories:

• Standing committees
• Select committees
• Domestic committees
• Legislative scrutiny committees
• Joint committees

The last of these categories (joint committees) comprises committees established by both chambers of the Australian parliament, with a membership drawn from both chambers.

Contents 1 List of committees 2 Purposes of committees 2.1 Standing committees 2.2 Select committees 2.3 Domestic committees 2.4 Legislative scrutiny committees 3 Membership and rules of committees 4 The work of committees 5 The history of committee reforms 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

[edit] List of committees

These are the committees that currently exist within each category:

• Standing committees
  • Community Affairs
  • Economics
  • Employment, Workplace Relations and Education
  • Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
  • Finance and Public Administration
  • Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
  • Legal and Constitutional
  • Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport
• Select committees
• Domestic committees
  • Appropriations and staffing
  • Privileges
  • Procedure
  • Selection of Bills
  • Senators' Interests
• Legislative scrutiny committees
  • Regulations and Ordinances
  • Scrutiny of Bills

[edit] Purposes of committees

The functions of committees depend on the type of committee and on the work it is undertaking.

[edit] Standing committees

From 1994 to September 2006 the eight standing committees were actually made up of pairs of committees - a legislation committee and a references committee. The legislation committees were responsible for scrutinising bills referred to it by the chamber, examining the government's budget and activities (in what is called the budget estimates process),^[1] and for examining departmental annual reports and activities. The references committees were responsible for conducting inquiries into topics referred to them by the chamber. From 11 September 2006 each of these pairs of committees was integrated, however their functions remained unchanged.

[edit] Select committees

Select committees are temporary committees, established by the Senate to deal with particular issues. This may happen when a particular group of Senators wants to pursue an issue in depth, or there is no existing committee that is suited to addressing a particular topic. Recent select committees include ones examining the Administration of Indigenous Affairs, and Mental Health. Select committees usually examine an issue and upon reporting back to the chamber, cease to exist. One exception to this was the Senate Select Committee on Superannuation which in various guises existed for a decade.

[edit] Domestic committees

Domestic committees are responsible for adminsitering aspects of the Senate's own affairs. The selection of bills committee meets each sitting fortnight to consider which of the bills coming before the Senate will be referred to committees for detailed consideration. The procedure committee considers "any matter relating to the procedures of the Senate referred to it by the Senate or by the President" (Senate Standing Order 17). This committee thus regularly examines and reports back to the chamber on suggested changes to the operation of the Senate and its committees, such as what times of day the chamber will sit and what rules should govern its order of business.

[edit] Legislative scrutiny committees

The purpose of the scrutiny of bills committee is to assess "legislative proposals against a set of accountability standards that focus on the effect of proposed legislation on individual rights, liberties and obligations, and on parliamentary propriety".^[2] The regulations and ordinances committee performs a similar task, but for all subordinate legislation.

[edit] Membership and rules of committees

The most important and high profile of the committees are the standing committees. These each have eight members: four drawn from amongst government Senators, three from the opposition, and one from amongst the minor parties and independents. The Chair of each committee is chosen from amongst the government members, the deputy chair from amongst non-government members. Because the Chair has a casting vote in the event of a committee vote being tied, the government effectively controls the committees. This control reflects the fact that the government secured a majority of seats in the chamber at the 2004 election. Prior to having this control, the chairing - and control - of Senate committees had been divided amongst government and non-government parties.

Committees have two types of members: full members and participating members. In the case of standing committees, full members are the eight outlined above. In addition, however, any Senator may arrange for the Senate to agree to their being made a participating member of the committee. This gives them the same rights as full members, with the important exception of being unable to move or vote on motions in private meetings of the committees.

The committees are governed by the Standing Orders of the Senate, as well as being able to pass their own resolutions to govern their operations. Some of the key features of the committees include:

• the main formal structure of their work is that the Senate refers something to a committee for examination, and the committee reports back to the Senate on that matter
• committees can gather evidence, hold public hearings and produce reports
• committees can (with rare exceptions) travel from place to place to hear evidence
• committees are able to order the production of documents and the appearance of witnesses (powers that are in practice used very sparingly)
• most evidence (both written submissions and transcripts of public hearings) taken by committees is published, however committees have the power to take evidence confidentially (in camera), and regularly do so
• committees hold both public hearings and conduct business at private meetings. The minutes of private meetings are confidential (in contrast, for example, to those of New South Wales parliamentary committees).

The rules governing committees are slightly different when conducting budget estimates hearings. In particular, during estimates hearings,

• any Senator may ask questions of the officials appearing before the committee (normally only members can ask questions)
• no evidence can be taken on a confidential basis
• the committee cannot control which agencies Senators may choose to direct questions to (although the committee can control whether this happens at the public hearing, or whether it must be done in writing afterwards).

[edit] The work of committees

[edit] The history of committee reforms

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

Senate briefs number 4, Senate committees http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/pubs/briefs/brief4.htm

[edit] External links

• Official website of the Australian Senate