17th Jun 2020, 4:04 PM – Senate Motions - National Covid-19 Coordination Commission - Disband

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Queensland Senator Larissa Waters (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the Morrison Government's handpicked National COVID-19 Coordination Commission was established without clear terms of reference,

(ii) the membership of the Commission and its Manufacturing Taskforce is dominated by people with ties to the gas industry and who stand to benefit from investment in gas projects, including the Narrabri pipeline championed by the Commission,

(iii) despite requests for greater transparency, all but one of the members of the Commission have declined to make their conflict of interest disclosures publicly available,

(iv) members of the Commission's Manufacturing Taskforce are not required to disclose their conflicts of interest to the Prime Minister and Cabinet even though public records show some hold shareholdings in companies that would benefit from the projects the Taskforce recommends,

(v) Paul Bastian, a member of the Manufacturing Taskforce, has reported that the Taskforce is overwhelmingly focused on a gas-led recovery and did not give adequate consideration to renewable energy projects, and

(vi) the Commission has failed to give comprehensive, independent consideration to important economy-boosting projects such as renewable energy and public housing infrastructure; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to disband the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission.