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Senate Notices of Motion: September 16, 2026

Parliament of Australia

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Date Published
16 Sept 2026
Priority Score
3
Australian
Yes
Created
16 Sept 2026, 05:22 am

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Summary

This parliamentary record details a motion by Senators Waters and David Pocock to expand the membership and participation rights of the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. The proposal seeks to increase the committee's size to thirteen members and allow for participating members to join hearings and deliberations, reflecting an effort to broaden parliamentary oversight of AI. While the specific motion is procedural, the committee itself is central to Australia's legislative response to AI governance and safety. Strengthening the inclusivity of this committee could influence how the Australian government addresses systemic AI risks and the regulation of frontier capabilities.

Body

Presentation Senator Canavan to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister for Trade and Tourism, by no later than 5 pm on Monday, 12 October 2026, all correspondence, meeting records, briefing notes, minutes and other documents created or received by Export Finance Australia between 1 March and 30 June 2026 concerning consultation with Fertiliser Australia or members of the Fertiliser Supply Working Group in relation to the Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility, including: (a) recommendations concerning companies that should receive access to the facility; (b) recommendations concerning eligibility or selection criteria; (c) recommendations concerning the structure or pricing of contracts for difference; (d) declarations or disclosures of actual, potential or perceived conflicts of interest; (e) arrangements for managing any disclosed conflicts; and (f) communications involving representatives of Incitec Pivot, CSBP or Summit concerning the design of the facility prior to those companies receiving support. Senator Canavan to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister for Trade and Tourism, by no later than 5 pm on Monday, 12 October 2026, all documents created or received by Export Finance Australia concerning the selection or eligibility of fertiliser companies for support under the Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility, including: (a) eligibility and assessment criteria; (b) national-interest criteria; (c) lists of fertiliser importers considered for participation; (d) invitations or approaches made to potential participants; (e) applications, expressions of interest or proposals received; (f) assessments of Incitec Pivot, CSBP and Summit Rural; (g) assessments of companies that sought or were considered for support but did not receive support; (h) reasons for accepting or rejecting each company; (i) advice provided by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry or the Department of Industry, Science and Resources concerning the selection of participating companies; and (j) any consideration of whether an open, competitive or expression-of-interest process should be conducted. Senator Canavan to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister for Trade and Tourism, by no later than 5 pm on Monday, 12 October 2026, all documents created or received by Export Finance Australia between 1 April and 31 August 2026 concerning the actual or potential impact of the Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility on competition in the Australian fertiliser market, including documents concerning: (a) the effect of providing price-risk protection to participating companies but not to other importers or resellers; (b) movements in Australian and international urea prices; (c) the risk of supported companies being able to sell fertiliser below the cost faced by unsupported competitors; (d) potential market distortion or competitive advantage arising from the facility; (e) complaints or concerns raised by fertiliser importers, wholesalers, retailers or industry bodies; (f) any advice received from or provided to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission; (g) options to modify, suspend or terminate fertiliser support as market conditions changed; and (h) any consideration of compensation or other assistance for non-participating businesses. Senator Payman to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister for the Environment and Water, by no later than 5 pm on Friday, 23 October 2026, copies of all ministerial submissions, briefing notes, meeting notes, emails and instant or other electronic messages between the Minister for the Environment and Water or his office and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water that relate to the decision to no longer progress development of reforms which would have established national standards for packaging. (general business notice of motion no. 709) Senator Payman to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister for the Public Service, by no later than 5 pm on Monday, 19 October 2026, anonymised copies of all responses and submissions made to the Remuneration Tribunal's consultation paper entitled 'Remuneration of Departmental Secretaries'. (general business notice of motion no. 710) Senator Payman to move on the next day of sitting: That— (a) the Senate notes that: (i) on 8 September 2026, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts (the department) lodged responses to questions taken on notice as part of the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee's inquiry into the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026, (ii) one of these responses with the identifier IQ26-000102 (the response) contained questions which sought clarification on whether officials from the department provided misleading evidence at a hearing on 14 August 2026 (the hearing) by claiming that certain links to references in the report of the Age Assurance Technology Trial (the report) were not broken at the time the report was provided to government, but became broken at some later point in time, and (iii) the response did not directly address the questions and instead referred to a letter between the Secretary of the department and the Chair of the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, dated 31 August 2026, which notes that 'the representations made by officials were based on information available to them at the time and were honestly and reasonably held' but neither confirms nor denies that officials from the department provided misleading evidence at the hearing; and (b) there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Communications, by no later than 5 pm on Friday, 18 September 2026, a revised version of the response which directly addresses the question of whether officials from the department provided misleading evidence at the hearing by claiming that certain links to references in the report were not broken at the time the report was provided to government, but became broken at some later point in time. Senator Payman to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Special Minister of State, by no later than 5 pm on Friday, 25 September 2026, copies of ministerial submissions received by the Special Minister of State from the Australian Electoral Commission with parliamentary document record numbers MS25-000045, MS25 000049 and MS26-000008. (general business notice of motion no. 712) Senator Bragg to move on the next day of sitting: That the following matter be referred to the Economics References Committee for inquiry and report by 7 June 2027: Mortgage offset accounts, with particular reference to: (a) the establishment of home mortgage offset accounts, including setup and linking of accounts; (b) the implementation of ongoing management and governance arrangements, including policies, procedures and internal controls; (c) the impact of costs and fees versus benefits of offset accounts for customers; (d) the identification of account failures and internal incident reporting and escalation; (e) remediation for customers affected by account failures; (f) compensation for customers experiencing account failures; (g) the impact on mortgagees and implications for home ownership including increased interest costs, effects on mortgage repayments and sustainability of home ownership; and (h) any other related matters. Senator Cash to move on the next day of sitting: (1) That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent this resolution having effect. (2) That the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Restoring Common Sense and Recognising Biological Sex) Bill 2026 be restored to the Notice Paper and consideration of the bill resume at the first reading stage. Senator Gallagher to move on the next day of sitting: That consideration of the business before the Senate on Wednesday, 16 September 2026 be interrupted at approximately 5 pm, but not so as to interrupt a senator speaking, to enable Senator Gatenby to make his first speech (of approximately 20 minutes) without any question before the chair. Senators David Pocock, Faruqi, Payman and Thorpe to move on the next day of sitting: That the following bill be introduced: A Bill for an Act to amend the law relating to defence trade controls, investments in illegal undertakings, genocide, importation of goods and services from occupied territories, and for related purposes. Red Lines Package Omnibus Bill 2026. (general business notice of motion no. 714) Senator Lambie to move on the next day of sitting: That the following bill be introduced: A Bill for an Act to amend the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004, and for related purposes. Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Veterans' Healthcare Without Caps) Bill 2026. (general business notice of motion no. 715) Senator Hume to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs, by no later than 9 am on Thursday, 17 September 2026, copies of all documents recording or referring to a request made by Victoria Police to the Australian Federal Police to investigate alleged corrupting benefits paid to influence a trade union official in connection with Commonwealth funded infrastructure projects, including any document recording the Australian Federal Police's response to that request. (general business notice of motion no. 716) Senator Hume to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs, by no later than 9 am on Thursday, 17 September 2026, a copy of any response provided by the Australian Federal Police to the letter sent by the General Manager of the Fair Work Commission on 21 May 2026. (general business notice of motion no. 717) Senator Lambie to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, by midday on Thursday, 17 September 2026, the final report titled 'Women Veterans' Strategy' completed in 2025. (general business notice of motion no. 718) Senator Collins to move on the next day of sitting: That the Senate— (a) notes that: (i) on 2 July 2026, the Senate agreed to order for the production of documents no. 552, relating to the Base Services Transformation Program, requiring the Minister representing the Minister for Defence to comply by midday on Monday, 3 August 2026, (ii) on 30 July 2026, the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme provided an interim response from the Minister for Defence, advising that additional time was required to comply with the order, and (iii) the order has not been complied with; and (b) requires the Minister representing the Minister for Defence to comply with the order by 10 am on Thursday, 17 September 2026. Senators Waters and David Pocock to move on the next day of sitting: (1) That paragraph (3) of the resolution of appointment of the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, relating to membership of the committee, be amended as follows: Omit "twelve members", substitute "thirteen members". Omit "one Senator to be nominated by any minority group or independent Senator", substitute "two Senators to be nominated by any minority group or independent Senator". (2) That this resolution be transmitted to the House of Representatives for concurrence. Senators Waters and David Pocock to move on the next day of sitting: (1) That the resolution of appointment of the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence be amended to insert after paragraph (3): (3A) participating members may be appointed to the committee on the nomination, in the House of Representatives, of the Government or Opposition Whips or any minority group or independent Member, and, in the Senate, of the Leader of the Government or Opposition, or any minority group or independent Senator, and a participating member: (a) shall be taken to be a member of the committee for the purposes of forming a quorum; and (b) may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee and have all rights of a committee member except that a participating member may not vote on any question before the committee; (2) That this resolution be transmitted to the House of Representatives for concurrence. Senator McKenzie to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, by no later than midday on 12 October 2026, any documents including correspondence, file notes or decision briefs regarding the application for funding for the Carter Field upgrades at the National Hockey Centre as part of the Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program, between 1 April 2025 and 12 May 2026. (general business notice of motion no. 722) Senator McKenzie to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, by no later than midday on 12 October 2026, any correspondence, emails, instant or other electronic messages, agendas, itineraries, meeting notes and meeting minutes, file notes and records of conversation held by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, the minister's office or the department in relation to the Departmental Industry Forum and Airservices Australia between 1 January and 31 August 2026. (general business notice of motion no. 723) Senator McKenzie to move on the next day of sitting: That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, by no later than midday on 12 October 2026, any correspondence, emails, instant or other electronic messages, agendas, itineraries, meeting notes and meeting minutes, file notes and records of conversation between the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government or the minister's office and Airservices Australia between 1 January and 31 August 2026. (general business notice of motion no. 724)