THE Joint Standing Committee on Implementation of the National Redress Scheme will be holding a public hearing tomorrow for an inquiry into the National Redress Scheme.
Legal practitioners, support services and advocates are among witnesses scheduled to give evidence.
The public hearing will start at 9:30am AEDT (Canberra time). The program is available on the Committee’s website.
The inquiry is looking into a range of areas, including:
The experience of First Nations applicants and applicants with disability in their dealings with the Scheme.
Accessibility, performance and effectiveness of support services and legal advice for survivors and their advocates.
The committee is continuing to accept written submissions.
Full details of what the inquiry is examining can be found in the terms of reference on the Committee’s website. An easy English guide is also available.
UNDER the Public Works Committee Act 1969, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works will consider three new referrals, one from the Department of Defence, one from Airservices Australia and one from Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.
The projects are:
Department of Defence – RAAF Base Darwin – Mid-term Refresh – $159.9 million – Darwin, Northern Territory; The works will deliver enhanced resilience and redundancy to the base and includes upgrades to vehicle access as well as sewer and water networks.
Airservices Australia – PFAS Remediation of Former Fire Training Ground at Launceston Airport – $24 million – Launceston, Tasmania. The works will remediate Per-and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) contamination of Launceston Airport resulting from historical firefighting operations on the site.
It is anticipated that the committee will conduct public and in-camera hearings for the inquiries in 2024. The committee wants to hear from all individuals or organisations interested in the project. The deadline for public submissions is early January 2024, with more information available on the Public Works Committee website.
Committee Chair Graham Perrett MP, said, "Public submissions and the public hearings will allow the committee to review the purpose, need and public value of the proposed works."
Note: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works is not involved in the tendering process, awarding of contracts or details of the proposed works. Inquiries on these matters should be addressed to the relevant Commonwealth entities.
Chair of the subcommittee, Josh Burns MP, said, "This is an important bipartisan report that considers how Australia can partner with countries in our region to promote democracy and the international rules-based order.
"This report recommends how Australia’s national interests and foreign policy pursuits can be strengthened by aligning with local priorities, enhancing both countries institutions and building on strong bilateral relationships to promote democracy in our region.
"Ultimately, stronger partnerships build capacity to resist regression of democratic norms and ideals that has been eroding the effectiveness of the international framework that has served our region for many years."
Recommendations include:
Increased funding for the Australian Electoral Commission to develop long-term partnerships with electoral bodies in the Indo-Pacific who request assistance with elections.
Establishing a media broadcasting capacity and support building program for the region that facilitates training and development both in Australia and in our neighbouring countries.
Establishing a Women in Parliament program to strengthen partnerships with women in the region.
Establishing a central Civil Society Organisation Hub within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to help coordinate development delivery in the region.
This report makes eight recommendations in total and can be found on the inquiry's website.
Students will learn about federation, democracy and the Australian Parliament, as well as hear first-hand from the Speaker and Ms Ley on what a typical day looks like in their electorate and when they are in Canberra for sitting weeks.
Over three days, the Speaker and Ms Ley will visit:
Wentworth Public School
Pomona Public School
Palinyewah Public School
Pooncarie Public School
Dareton Public School
Gol Gol Public School
Euston Public School.
“In collaboration with local federal MPs, we have brought Parliament to over 70 schools across Australia,” Speaker Milton Dick said.
“I am so passionate about ensuring as many young Australians as possible have the information and knowledge they need to go on to being engaged and informed citizens.”
“I am really looking forward to bringing the Parliament in Schools to the great electorate of Farrer.”
About the Parliament in Schools program
Launched last year, the Parliament in Schools program is a bi-partisan initiative to make civics education accessible to students regardless of their location. In collaboration with local federal members, the Speaker is visiting schools across Australia to bring parliament to them.
The program is an extension to well-established Parliamentary Education Office (PEO) onsite, digital and outreach education programs available to schools across Australia.
It also complements the existing PEO online and print resources that are curriculum-aligned, for Australian teachers and students.
FINDING collaborative ways to fund improvements and encourage greater sharing of mobile phone infrastructure to provide better, more competitive access to digital services across regional and remote Australia is the focus of a report Connecting the country: Mission critical released today by the House Communications and the Arts Committee.
The parliamentary inquiry into co-investment in regional mobile carrier infrastructure heard a wide range of evidence from state and territory governments, Indigenous communities and First Nations media, business chambers, councils, health services, mine companies, tourism operators, farmers and agri-business, fire, police and emergency services and community groups on how essential mobile coverage is, and how detrimental a lack of coverage can be for day to day life and operations.
The committee also heard how perilous these mobile black spots can be during emergencies, police operations or road accidents in regional areas.
Recommendations made by the committee focussed on how the Australian Government can encourage more co-investment by mobile network operators and sharing of mobile towers to address the challenges of improving coverage and competition across Australia’s wide expanse, including:
developing and implementation of a practical universal service obligation for mobile telecommunications service providers;
facilitating roundtable meetings between NBN Co and mobile telecommunications industry representatives with Rewiring the Nation program planners to ascertain the potential to co-locate telecommunications infrastructure along renewable electricity transmission routes planned for regional and remote Australia;
establishing a working group involving state and territory governments, emergency services agencies, and mobile network operators to develop protocols for temporary roaming arrangements in declared disasters and emergencies;
reviewing the implications of non-use and area-wide licensing for the allocation, management, and use of spectrum for the provision of regional telecommunications services;
assessing the merits of including licence conditions on mobile network owners and other spectrum licensees of terms and conditions that mandate open access and active sharing solutions;
evaluating the objectives and guidelines of the Mobile Black Spot Program to ensure it remains fit for purpose;
establishing a trial program to fund mobile-carrier infrastructure in specific regional and remote geographical areas with a mandate for open access through active or passive sharing to any funded infrastructure;
developing a trial program to fund infrastructure to support multi-carrier mobile network sharing models at locations on major roads in regional and remote areas with limited or no network coverage;
leading development of a Regional Australia Mobile Telecommunications Strategy in consultation with state, territory and local governments to consider the trends and demands of regional growth and identify regions and growth corridors;
facilitating the harmonisation of planning and environmental regulations for new mobile infrastructure across regional, rural and remote Australia;
investigating and funding targeted, place-based solutions for providing reliable and secure access to telecommunications services in remote Indigenous communities, including, but not limited to:
deployment of wi-fi mesh networks or wi-fi hotspots, and
use of Low Earth Orbit satellite services.
Committee Chair, Brian Mitchell MP, outlined the majority of mobile infrastructure was not co-located, especially in regional areas, despite many years of significant government investment.
"The committee held hearings and roundtables to better understand why the rates of co-location for Australia’s major mobile providers dramatically declines as they move from urban to more regional and remote areas," Mr Mitchell said.
"The committee believes promoting co-investment remains a tool to encourage multiple telecommunications providers to invest in and share ‘multi-carrier’ mobile towers to improve the range and reliability of their services in regional and remote areas. But in this increasingly digital age it is important the government continue to develop alternative strategies to attract mobile network operators and tower companies to invest in assisting the many people living in regional, remote and even fast-growing peri-urban areas without any or poor access to phone and digital services."
Over the course of the inquiry, the committee held 17 public hearings in Canberra, Launceston, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Perth, Sydney and Geelong, in addition to receiving 43 written submissions from individuals, organisations and government bodies.
The committee thanked all those who took part in the inquiry by providing written submissions and giving evidence at public hearings or roundtables.
The full report may be found on the committee’s webpage.
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