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senate vote 2020-12-08#18
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2021-01-29 11:13:01
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Title
Bills — Defence Legislation Amendment (Enhancement of Defence Force Response to Emergencies) Bill 2020; in Committee- Defence Legislation Amendment (Enhancement of Defence Force Response to Emergencies) Bill 2020 - in Committee - Schedules 1 and 2
Description
<p class="speaker">Jordon Steele-John</p><p>by leave—The Greens oppose schedules 1 and 2 in the following terms:</p><p class="italic">(1) Schedule 1, page 3 (line 1) to page 6 (line 5), to be opposed.</p>- The majority voted in favour of a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2020-12-08.212.4) to keep schedules 1 and 2 stand unchanged. In parliamentary jargon, they voted "*that schedules 1 and 2 stand as printed.*" This vote happened after WA Senator [Jordon Steele-John](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/wa/jordon_steele-john) (Greens) introduced a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2020-12-08.211.1) that the schedules be opposed.
- ### What does schedule 1 do?
- According to the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2021a/21bd015#_Toc52880407):
- > *The purpose of the amendments in Schedule 1 is to streamline and enhance the provisions enabling Reserve Call Out, including where the Reserve Call Out is in response to a natural disaster or other emergency. The amendments are intended to:*
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- >> *a. Enhance flexibility in how called out ADF Reserve members serve by:*
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- >>> *i. removing references to continuous full-time service (CFTS)*
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- >>> *ii. enabling the Chief of the Defence Fore (CDF) to determine how and when they are required to serve.*
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- >> *b. Simplify the process for advising the Governor-General before making a Reserve Call Out order.*
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- >> *c. Provide for Reserve Call Out orders to be made by notifiable instrument.*
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- >> *d. Extend Parts 8, 9 and 10 of the Defence Reserve Service (Protection) Act 2001 to any service rendered by Reserves under a Reserve Call Out order and not just CFTS.*
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- >> *e. Modernise the language in Part III of the Act.*
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- >> *f. Amend the CDF's delegation power in relation to Reserve Call Out to reflect the other changes to the Act.*
- ### What does schedule 2 do?
- According to the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2021a/21bd015#_Toc52880414):
- > *Defence Assistance to the Civil Community (DACC) is not currently authorised by statute, it is a non-statutory exercise of executive power. Schedule 2 proposes to:*
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- > * *provide Australian Defence Force (ADF) members and other Defence personnel with immunity from civil and criminal liability in certain circumstances while performing duties in relation to assistance provided in civil emergency and disaster preparedness, recovery and response*
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- > * *permit the CDF or the Secretary to extend that immunity to other persons including members of foreign military forces and foreign police forces and*
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- > * *in the context of this grant of immunity, provide the Minister with statutory power to direct use of the ADF and other Defence personnel to provide assistance in a natural disaster or other emergency.*
<p class="italic">(2) Schedule 2, page 7 (line 1) to page 9 (line 21), to be opposed.</p><p>With the conclusion of this committee stage, we've now offered the chamber the opportunity to make clear that such call-out orders will be subject to the scrutiny of the parliament, which was voted down. We've given the chamber the opportunity to prescribe exactly what is meant by 'emergency', something which the major parties in this place have also voted against in the course of this committee stage. We've given the major parties the opportunity to ensure that actions are taken in consultation with the states and territories, and they have voted against that. We've given them the opportunity to remove the provision of immunity to foreign defence forces and to foreign police—something which they have just voted against—along with a clarification of the use of force, which has just been voted against. Every opportunity to improve this bill has been foregone by the major parties in this place. Every concern raised at the committee level has been ignored. So, finally, we give the opportunity for these highly inappropriate sections of the legislation to be separated from the one piece of this bill which does have merit—that is, the sections in relation to superannuation. There is indeed a need to address the discrepancies identified by the legislation—something that we support—and we now seek to separate the bill to enable those two pieces to be considered independently of each other. So I commend that position to the chamber.</p> <p class="speaker">Linda Reynolds</p><p>The government will not be supporting either of these amendments, because the measures in this bill will enhance the ability to provide defence assistance to the civil community by doing two things: firstly, by streamlining the process for calling out members of the ADF reserves under sections 28 and 29 of the Defence Act and, secondly, by providing ADF members, other defence personnel and members of foreign forces with similar immunities to state and territory emergency services personnel in certain cases while they are performing duties in good faith to support civil emergency and disaster preparedness, recovery and response. These amendments would take away both of these schedules in the bill. These have been designed to enhance Defence's ability to provide assistance in relation to natural disasters and other emergencies. They would also remove the opportunity to legislate some of the key lessons learned from the 2020-21 bushfires, which would be a significant missed opportunity ahead of the upcoming high-risk weather season. It's for these reasons, amongst many others that we've discussed here tonight, that the government will not be supporting these two amendments.</p><p>In closing, I thank the opposition. Senator Wong, I thank you and also Richard Marles and his office for the constructive way in which we've engaged with this to get to this very important legislation.</p> <p class="speaker">Andrew McLachlan</p><p>The question is that schedules 1 and 2 stand as printed.</p>
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