Review of Government Compensation Payments
Information about the Inquiry
On 04 February 2010 the Senate referred the following matter to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee for inquiry and report.
The administration and effectiveness of current mechanisms used by federal and state and territory governments to provide discretionary payments in special circumstances, or to provide financial relief from amounts owing to governments, namely:
• state statutory schemes relating to children in care;
• payments made under 'defective administration' schemes, such as the Commonwealth Scheme for Compensation for Detriment caused by Defective Administration;
• act of grace and ex gratia payments; and
• waiver of debt schemes.
The committee notes that several Senate committees have previously conducted inquiries in relation to Forgotten Australians, Stolen Generation Compensation and Indigenous Stolen Wages. In light of previous opportunities for detailed consideration of these issues, the primary focus of the current inquiry will be a legal, principles-based comparison between relevant payment schemes relating to children in care and other government schemes providing for discretionary payments.
On 30 September 2010, the Senate decided to re-adopt the inquiry with a new reporting date, as the inquiry had not been disposed of at the end of the 42nd Parliament. Submissions received during the previous Parliament will be considered by the committee and do not need to be resubmitted.
The original reporting date for the inquiry was 24 November 2010. However, on 17 November 2010, the Senate granted an extension of time to report until 6 December 2010.
Please note that the committee's report will be published on this website as soon as it is public. It is anticipated that this will happen late in the afternoon of 6 December 2010.
Submissions should be received by 30 July 2010.
The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3560 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5794 or by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.
Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
For further information, contact: Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia