The Tasmanian Legislative Council has its work condensed into the final part of the year

Matt Maloney | Advocate Newspaper | 14 September 2021   

A change to the Legislative Council sitting schedule will mean less community consultation on legislation to be decided upon at the end of the year, two independent MLCs say.

The government on Monday afternoon announced a sitting week in October would be moved to November to allow for greater consideration of upcoming legislation.

Murchison independent MLC Ruth Forrest and Nelson independent MLC Meg Webb said contrary to the government’s statement, they were not consulted about the change.

Ms Webb said community consultation, research and consideration of possible amendments would be constrained by the decision to cram four sitting weeks for the upper house into a five-week period.

“It begs the question, is the government actively seeking to sabotage the important work of the upper house?” she said.

“While this government may be content for its party-aligned members in the upper house to be a rubber stamp, that is not how the independents view their role, and the government’s abrupt change to sitting is highly disrespectful not just of the independent members, but also of Parliament itself.

“This is yet another example of the government’s clear form when it comes to doing everything it can to avoid being accountable to the Parliament and to the Tasmanian people.”

Ms Forrest said it was erroneous to suggest that the changed schedule would allow more time to consider legislation.

“It’s much better to have time between sitting weeks to further consider bills that have come through,” she said. “It’s important that we don’t have legislation brought on in a rush without time to properly consult.”

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