22nd Jun 2021, 10:46 PM – Senate Financial Regulator Assessment Authority Bill 2021 - Second Reading - Remove "departmental member" term

The majority voted in favour of amendments introduced by the Australian Greens Party, which means they were successful. The bill, with these amendments, will now be sent back to the House of Representatives for their consideration.

What do these amendments do?

Tasmanian Senator Nick McKim (Greens) tried to get permission to explain what these amendments were about, but he was refused, which makes it much harder for us.

Looking at the wording of the amendments, it seems their purpose is to remove the concepts of "appointed member" and "departmental member" from the bill and replace them with the more general term "member". The original bill included the following definitions for these terms:

• appointed member means a member other than the Departmental member.
• member means a member of the Authority and includes the Chair and the Departmental member.
• Departmental member: see section 23.

Section 23 was:

(1) The Departmental member is:

(a) the person nominated by the Secretary under subsection (2); or

(b) if there is no such nomination—the Secretary.

(2) The Secretary may, in writing, nominate an SES employee in the Department (other than a staff member) to be the Departmental member.

(3) The office of Departmental member is not a public office for the purposes of the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 .

So it appears that the purpose of this amendment is to ensure that the powers given to members in this bill can be performed by any "member of the Authority and includes the Chair and the Departmental member" as opposed to having to be a person specially appointed by the Secretary. The Greens appear to be concerned that the Secretary would appoint someone on the basis of politics rather than merit.

Amendments text

(1) Clause 4, page 3 (line 1), omit ", the Departmental member".

(2) Clause 5, page 3 (lines 9 and 10), omit the definition of appointed member.

(3) Clause 5, page 3 (line 18), omit the definition of Departmental member.

(4) Clause 5, page 4 (line 6), omit "and the Departmental member".

(5) Clause 10, page 7 (line 8), omit paragraph (b).

(6) Clause 22, page 14 (lines 5 and 6), omit "The other member is the Secretary or the Secretary's nominee.".

(8) Heading to Division 3, page 16 (line 1), omit "Appointed members", substitute "Members".

(9) Clause 24, page 16 (line 3), omit "Appointed members", substitute "Members".

(10) Clause 24, page 16 (line 5), omit "An appointed member", substitute "A Member".

(11) Clause 24, page 16 (line 8), omit "an appointed member", substitute "a member".

(12) Clause 24, page 16 (line 15), omit "appointed".

(13) Clause 24, page 16 (line 16), omit "An appointed member", substitute "A member".

(14) Clause 25, page 16 (line 18), omit "An appointed member", substitute "A member".

(15) Clause 25, page 16 (line 20), omit "an appointed member", substitute "a member".

(16) Clause 26, page 16 (line 22) to page 17 (line 18), omit "an appointed member" (wherever occurring), substitute "a member".

(17) Clause 27, page 17 (line 20), omit "An appointed member", substitute "A member".

(18) Clause 27, page 17 (line 22), omit "appointed".

(19) Clause 27, page 17 (line 25), omit "An appointed member", substitute "A member".

(20) Clause 28, page 17 (line 30), omit "appointed".

(21) Clause 29, page 18 (line 2), omit "An appointed member", substitute "A member".

(22) Clause 30, page 18 (line 6), omit "An appointed member", substitute "A member".

(23) Clause 31, page 18 (line 10), omit "an appointed member", substitute "a member".

(24) Clause 31, page 18 (line 17), omit "appointed".

(25) Clause 32, page 18 (line 21), omit "An appointed member", substitute "A member".

(26) Clause 33, page 18 (line 26) to page 19 (line 21), omit "an appointed member" (wherever occurring), substitute "a member".

(27) Clause 48, page 29 (lines 19 to 21), omit subclause (2).

(28) Clause 50, page 30 (lines 30 to 32), omit subclause (3).