False

Referral

On 3 December 2015, the Legislative Assembly referred the following inquiry to the Committee of the Legislative Assembly:

1.  That the Committee of the Legislative Assembly inquire into and report to the Legislative Assembly by 25 February 2016 on issues raised in recommendation nine regarding entrenchment and recommendation ten regarding a review of the parliamentary committee system, of the Finance and Administration Committee report “Inquiry into the introduction of four year terms for the Queensland Parliament, including consideration of Constitution (Fixed Term Parliament) Amendment Bill 2015 and Constitution (Fixed Term Parliament) Referendum Bill 2015 (the report)”.

2.  That, in undertaking this inquiry, the committee consider how the current parliamentary committee system could be strengthened to increase accountability by:

• examining the role of parliamentary committees in other jurisdictions with unicameral parliaments, including the functions and powers of those committees and how they are exercised, to see if the functions and powers of Queensland Parliamentary committees can be further strengthened; and
• reviewing the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 and Standing and Sessional Orders of the Legislative Assembly pertaining to parliamentary committee functions, powers and procedures to ensure these functions, powers and procedures are operating as effectively as possible as an accountability mechanism.

3.  Further, as part of this review, that the committee consider the implications and method of entrenching matters as outlined in recommendation nine of the report and consider alternative accountability mechanisms in lieu of entrenchment.

Inquiry timeline

Submissions closed on: 29 January 2016

Public hearing date: 9 February 2016. The transcript is available under the 'Related Publications' tab.

Reporting due date: 25 February 2016