Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, , 46:10 to 48:47
A review of the current volume of Senate committee inquiries, reports, and hearings compared to previous years, noting a slight retreat from recent peaks.
Topics: Integrity, Government spending
Speakers: Mr Henry Pike, Hon James McGrath, Hon Jane Hume
>> Okay.
>> Oh, that's all right.
>> Um, Clark, the department's only report states that Senate committee activity remains at historically elevated levels. That That's correct.
>> I think that's right, Senator. It's come down a little bit again from peaks that we saw a couple of years ago. We saw particularly peaks in relation to numbers of select committees and select committee activity and that's retreated a little bit. Um so staff are um very much uh engaged in busyiness. You know the the committees themselves are very busy as I think you would all um recognize. But I don't think that it's as frenetic as it has been. um a couple of years ago. So, it's come off that high water mark.
>> How many committee inquiries did the department support during the last
>> Again, I'd have to go to the annual report for that. Um we well, we did circulate to this committee ahead of um these hearings a letter um outlining the level of committee activity. So, you have
that. I don't know, but I'd like everybody listening to know because that would of um shine a light on your brilliant work. >> Not everybody reads your annual reports, Clark. Um
>> I I think that's very wise of them. Um >> um so um in the um >> 48th Parliament to date um 11 matters that were readopted from the previous parliament. 73 bills and 39 other references have been supported this parliament. Uh to date um 158 reports have been tabled. That compares with 161 tabled at the same time in the last parliament. Um hearings held a comparison again. We've had 158 standing committee hearings. That's exactly the same as at this time in the 47th Parliament. And we've had only 84 estimates hearings, which is slightly down on the number held at this time in the previous parliament as well. Um, and we're currently supporting seven select committees and one joint select committee as well as the um joint standing committees that we support and I think there are um five of them.