29th Nov 2022, 6:32 PM – Senate National Anti-Corruption Commission Bill 2022 and another - in Committee - Draft estimates

The majority voted against amendments by NSW Senator David Shoebridge (Greens), which means they failed.

What do the amendments do?

Senator Shoebridge explained that:

Taken together, these amendments will expressly empower the oversight committee to request draft estimates—the draft budget, effectively—for the National Anti-Corruption Commission. They will then require the NACC to provide those draft estimates to the committee and then allow the committee expressly to make recommendations to both houses of parliament and to the Attorney-General on those draft estimates. In other words, if there's not enough money in the kitty for the NACC, if there's not enough money being provided for them to do their job, then the committee can recommend what the level of funding should be during the budget process.

As I said before, and I won't repeat the submissions we made about how this already works for the National Audit Office, these amendments seek to draw from that experience and the longstanding provisions for the National Audit Office. It simply repeats those workable, functioning provisions for the National Audit Office for the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Amendment text

(7) Page 147 (after line 12), after clause 176, insert:

176A Committee may request draft estimates for NACC

(1) The Committee may request the Commissioner to submit to the Committee draft estimates for the NACC for a financial year before the annual Commonwealth budget for that financial year.

(2) The Commissioner must comply with the request in time to allow the Committee to consider the draft estimates and make recommendations on them before the budget.

(8) Clause 177, page 148 (after line 18), after paragraph (1)(f), insert:

(fa) to consider draft estimates for the NACC submitted under section 176A;

(fb) to make recommendations to both House of Parliament, and to the Attorney-General, on draft estimates referred to in paragraph (fa);