Michael is joined by Senator Rex Patrick, Senator for South Australia – Centre Alliance, regarding his intention to amend the Coalition Government’s Economic Recovery Package (JobMaker Hiring Credit) Amendment Bill 2020 to ensure that decisions about spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars are properly authorised by the Australian Parliament, not completely delegated to the Executive Government. 

Senator Patrick has lodged a dissenting report to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee inquiry regarding this Bill. 

“This is an extraordinary piece of legislation through which the Australian Parliament would abrogate its constitutional responsibility to decide legislation to an executive government that is already notoriously secret and very adverse to parliamentary and media scrutiny”, Senator Patrick said.

"The JobMaker Hiring Credit Bill in its current form – with a head of power granting largely unconstrained control and discretion to the Executive - should not be passed by the Parliament without the rules governing the JobMaker scheme being included in the legislation.”

“While the COVID-19 pandemic has posed many novel challenges to the conduct of business, the Parliament cannot abandon its constitutional responsibility as a legislature, one that makes laws in public, with open debate and voting for which its members are ultimately accountable back to their constituents.”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.