The majority voted against an amendment introduced by Gippsland MP Darren Chester (Nationals), which means it failed.

Amendment text

That the following words be added:

"and that the House shall meet on Monday, 14 October 2024, Tuesday, 15 October 2024, Wednesday, 16 October 2024 and Thursday, 17 October 2024."

Motion text

That the proposed parliamentary sittings for 2024 be agreed to.

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the bill's main idea. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a second time. This means they can now consider it in more detail.

What is the bill's main idea?

According to the bills digest (which is prepared by the non-partisan parliamentary library):

Bills with similar purposes were introduced in 2018 and 2019 but lapsed with the dissolution of the House of Representatives in April 2019 and April 2022, respectively. ... The Identity Verification Services Bill 2023 (IVS Bill), as outlined in the Explanatory Memorandum, would:

• authorise 1:1 matching of identity through the identity verification services, with consent of the relevant individual, by public and private sector entities. This will be enabled by:

• the Document Verification Service which provides 1:1 matching to verify biographic information (such as a name or date of birth), with consent, against government issued identification documents;

• the Face Verification Service which provides 1:1 matching to verify biometric information (in this case a photograph or facial image of an individual), with consent, against a Commonwealth, state or territory issued identification document (for example, passports and driver licences); and

• the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution which enables the FVS to conduct 1:1 matching against State and Territory identification documents such as driver licences.

• authorise 1:many matching services through the Face Identification Service [FIS] only for the purpose of protecting the identity of persons with a legally assumed identity, such as undercover officers and protected witnesses. The protection of legally assumed identities will also be supported by the use of the FVS. All other uses of 1:many matching through the identity verification services will not be authorised, and will therefore be prohibited.

• authorise the responsible Commonwealth department – in this case the Attorney-General’s Department – to develop, operate and maintain the identity verification facilities (the DVS hub, the Face Matching Service Hub and the NDLFRS). These approved identity verification facilities will be used to provide the identity verification services. These facilities will relay electronic communications between persons and bodies for the purposes of requesting and providing identity verification services.

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the bill as amended. This ends the consideration in detail stage and means they can no decide on whether to pass it in the House of Representatives.

What is the bills main idea?

According to the bills digest (which is prepared by the non-partisan parliamentary library):

• The Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023 seeks to amend the Water Act 2007 and the Basin Plan 2012 to implement legislative aspects of the Agreement of Murray-Darling Basin Ministers to deliver the Basin Plan in full agreed by the Commonwealth and Basin States (except Victoria) on 22 August 2023.

• The Bill broadens the activities that may be funded by the Water for the Environment Special Account, repeals the limit on the Commonwealth’s purchase of water access entitlements, and extends several timeframes for delivery of water recovery projects.

• The Bill also seeks to amend the Water Act, Basin Plan and Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CC Act) to implement some recommendations of the Water market reform: final roadmap report. That report examined and mapped out a ‘phased, practical and cost-effective plan’ (p. 2) for responding to the recommendations of the ACCC’s Murray-Darling Basin water markets inquiry.

• Water market reforms proposed include a Water Market Intermediaries Code, civil penalties for insider trading and market manipulation, and strengthening information transparency mechanisms.

• The Explanatory Memorandum (pp. 7–8) indicates that the Department undertook 2 separate consultation processes:

• in relation to delivery of the Basin Plan, a general consultation on community ideas for delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan

• in relation to water market reforms, a targeted consultation with key stakeholders, including by providing an Exposure Draft of proposed provisions.

• While stakeholders have generally welcomed the extension of key timeframes for delivery of water recovery targets, farming and irrigator groups remain strongly opposed to the purchase of water access entitlements by the Commonwealth and voiced concerns about negative social and economic impacts on Basin communities.

• The Bill has been referred to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 8 November 2023.

The majority voted in favour of government amendments introduced by Sydney MP Tanya Plibersek (Labor), which means they will now be included in the bill.

What do these amendments do?

Ms Plibersek explained that:

The government is introducing amendments to the bill to: firstly, strengthen transparency and accountability in the Basin Plan, including for the role of the Inspector-General of Water Compliance; secondly, ensure the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission can enforce its new information-gathering powers by making the ACCC the appropriate enforcement agency and adding a civil penalty provision for contraventions; thirdly, ensure the Inspector-General for Water Compliance does not have oversight of the ACCC or the Commonwealth or basin agencies that the ACCC regulates in relation to the integrity and conduct obligations in the bill; and, fourthly, to make minor and technical amendments in response to feedback from Commonwealth and basin state agencies and to ensure the bill would operate as intended.