DAVID RISSTROM'S SENATE WATCH

David's Risstrom's Senate Watch aims to provide a ready to hand list of Senate committees and inquiries that are likely to affect you.

These pages are written and maintained by David Risstrom. While they source information from Senate documents and elsewhere, the information provided is not officially endorsed by the Australian Senate. This page was updated on 27 April 2008.

WHAT ARE SENATE COMMITTEES?

Senate Committees are established by the Australian Senate, usually to deal with a specific function within the Senate's powers. With the Australian Senate having 76 Senators, establishing Committees comprised of a smaller membership allows Senators to consider a variety of issues simultaneously, by allocating an area of responsibility or by establishing particular issues, known as references, to consider and report back to the Senate as a whole.

Senate Committees are categorised in a number of ways.

• Standing Committees: Senate Committees established to maintain an ongoing scrutiny of issues such as 'Economics, Legal and Constitutional' and Environment, Communications, Information, technology and the Arts.' These Committees exist for the duration of each Parliament (Parliaments are considered to be renewed after each election).
• Select Committees: Senate Committees established by the Senate to inquire into and report on a particular matter, such as the Australia- USA Free Trade Agreement.
• Domestic Committees: These are currently eight Senate Committees established as domestic committees to take care of the running of the Senate These include the following Senate Privileges and Selection of Bills Committee.
• Legislative Scrutiny Committees: These include the Regulations and Ordinances Committee and the Scrutiny of Bills Committee, which look at proposed laws in the form of Bills, to make sure they are considered by the Senate for their conformity with other laws and their impact on other important impacts such as civil liberties.
• Standing Committee on Regulation and Ordinances: This considers all the delegated legislation that is made by the Senate to make sure it is lawful and is not likely to have unintended consequences. Delegated legislation such as regulations involve laws known as regulations that are made under the power of an Act to give effect to the decisions allowed by the Act. One example is that an Act allows an Australian citizen to apply for a passport, while the regulations set down the procedures and cost for doing so.
• Scrutiny of Bills Committee: This carries out a similar function to the Regulation and Ordinances Committee, but differs in that it considers proposed laws before they are debated by the Senate.
• Legislative and General Purpose Standing Committee: These committees were established in 1994 to be ready to deal with the work of Government Departments, and to consider issues that arose from proposed Bills relating to their activities.
• Reference Committees: These Committees work on particular issues refereed to them, known as 'references', often developed following consideration in the Senate where the Senate considers more time and further inquiry is needed into issues.
• Legislation Committees: These scrutinise the government's legislative program and appropriations (spending) and administration.

CURRENT SENATE COMMITTEES

Current Senate Committees are listed below.

* Appropriations and Staffing
* 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
* Privileges
* Procedure
* Regulations and Ordinances
* Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport
* Scrutiny of Bills
* Selection of Bills
* Senators' Interests

Joint Committees (House of Representative and Senate) Administered by the Senate

* Australian Crime Commission (Formerly National Crime Authority)
* Corporations and Financial Services

WHAT ARE SENATE INQUIRIES?

The Senate has wide ranging powers that include the power to inquire into any matter of public interest. Senate Committees exercise these powers by holding inquiries according to terms of reference established by the Senate.

In practice, after been given a 'reference' by the Senate and having its membership established from Senators available to take part in the inquiry, Committees usually conduct inquiries by advertising the existence of the inquiry, calling for evidence by written submission and/or by giving evidence directly to the Inquiry. Committees often travel outside the parliament to allow greater public participation.

A common form of reporting back to the Senate is the compilation of a report on the Committee's investigation of the references it was given and for the report to be tabled in the Senate and made available by printing copies available to the public at large.

CURRENT SENATE INQUIRIES?

Below is a list of current inquiries as publicly listed by the Australian Senate. Some of these Senate Committees have changed since the sittings of the Parliament following the 2007 Federal election. Details of each Committee can be found on the Senate webpage by clicking on the highlighted title name on this page. This list of current Senate inquiries was updated on 27 April 2008.

A list of Completed Senate Inquiries since 1996 is maintained by the Senate and is available by clicking on the underlined title.

SENATE LEGISLATIVE AND GENERAL PURPOSE COMMITTEES

COMMUNITY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

ECONOMICS COMMITTEE

EMPLOYMENT, WORKPLACE RELATIONS AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE

ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS COMMITTEE

FINANCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE AND TRADE LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT COMMITTEE

PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE

SENATE SELECT COMMITTEES

AGRICULTURE AND RELATED INDUSTRIES

HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN AUSTRALIA

STATE GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN AUSTRALIA

STATE GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

JOINT COMMITTEES ADMINISTERED BY THE SENATE

AUSTRALIAN COMMISSION FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT INTEGRITY

AUSTRALIAN CRIME COMMISSION

CORPORATIONS AND FINANCIAL SERVICES