COMMITTEES
Senator GREEN (Queensland—Assistant Minister for Tourism, Assistant Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and Assistant Minister for Northern Australia) (16:21): I present three government responses to committee reports as listed on today's Order of Business. In accordance with the usual practice, I seek leave to incorporate the documents in Hansard. Leave granted.
The documents read as follows— Australian Government Response to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee report: Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026 Dear president I write to you to provide a copy of the Australian Government response to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee Report titled 'Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026'.
The Government response was delivered during debate in the Senate on 1 July 2026. For completeness and ease of reference, I have attached an extract Of the relevant Hansard proceedings. Please arrange for this letter and the attached material to be tabled in the Senate.
Yours sincerely Andrew Leigh Australian Government response to the Economics Legislation Committee report: National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020 [Provisions] SEPTEMBER 2026 The Government notes the recommendations. Given the passage of time since this report was tabled, the Government provides the following update: On 22 June 2021, the National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020 was passed.
On 18 July 2023, the Federal Court set aside the former Minister's declaration of Napandee as the proposed site for the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (the Facility) on the grounds of apprehended bias. On 10 August 2023, the Minister for Resources stated that the Government did not intend to appeal the Federal Court's decision, nor pursue Napandee or the previously shortlisted Lyndhurst and Wallerberdina sites as a potential site for the Facility.
On 28 August 2025, the land of the former site at Napandee sold at auction. The Government remains firmly committed to the safe management and disposal of Commonwealth radioactive waste. Work is being undertaken to assess options for the management and disposal of the Commonwealth's low-level and intermediate-level waste.
A process and timeframes for establishing radioactive waste disposal pathways and associated siting will be determined once the Government has considered options and made decisions in due course. Australian Government Response to the Report of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee on the Defence Legislation Amendment (RCDVS Implementation and Related Measures No. 2) Bill 2026 September 2026 Introduction On 25 June 2026, the Defence Legislation Amendment (RCDVS Implementation and Related Measures No. 2) Bill 2026 (the Bill) was referred to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee (the Committee) for inquiry and report by 4 September 2026.
On 4 September 2026, the Committee tabled its report on the Bill. The Bill would amend the Defence Act 1903 (the Defence Act), the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA) and the Defence and Veterans' Service Commissioner Act 2026 to implement and support key recommendations of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide (RCDVS). The Bill is a significant package of reform and forms a key part of the Australian Government's response to the RCDVS.
The RCDVS identified serious systemic issues affecting the health, wellbeing and safety of serving and former Australian Defence Force (ADF) members and their families. These included barriers to information sharing, gaps in transition support, limitations in the legislative framework governing Defence health services and shortcomings in the support available to Defence families.
The reforms would establish, for the first time, a comprehensive legislative foundation for Defence health services and a dedicated framework for supporting the lifetime wellbeing, health and safety of ADF members, veterans and their families. The reforms would also enable better use of information to identify and respond to risks, improve continuity of care and transition support, strengthen assistance for Defence families, and reinforce the standards expected of those serving in the ADF.
Together, these measures support early intervention, strengthen suicide prevention, improve continuity of care and enhance accountability across the Defence and veteran support system. The Bill directly implements 15 of the RCDVS recommendations and supports the implementation of a further 20 recommendations. This includes information-sharing provisions to support the operation of the Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency and the National Veteran Data Asset once established.
The Government thanks the Committee and those who contributed to the inquiry for their consideration of the Bill. Following its consideration, the Committee made six recommendations. The Government's response to each recommendation is set out below.
Recommendation 1 The Committee recommends that the Department of Defence implements measures to safeguard the privacy of Australian Defence Force members, veterans and their families given the information collection, use and disclosure measures in the Bill. Response: The Government agrees with this recommendation. The Government recognises that strong privacy protections are critical to maintaining the confidence of ADF members, veterans and their families.
The information sharing framework in the Bill is intended to address barriers identified by the RCDVS and support improved wellbeing, health and safety outcomes. The Bill does not authorise unrestricted information sharing. Information may only be collected, used or disclosed where authorised by the legislative framework and for specified purposes.
The Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles will continue to apply, including strict obligations relating to privacy, security, access controls, data quality, data breach management and accountability and regulatory oversight and enforcement by the Australian Information Commissioner. The Bill also includes safeguards to ensure that privacy impacts are proportionate and appropriately managed.
Before making an instrument under proposed sections 70KA or 70KB, the relevant Minister must be satisfied that the proposed information handling would support wellbeing, health or safety outcomes and that any privacy impact is proportionate to the expected benefits. Ministerial guidelines under proposed section 70KC will establish detailed requirements for research, data analysis and evaluation activities, including in relation to consent, de-identification, security, governance and accountability.
The guidelines may specify circumstances when information can be collected, used, or disclosed without consent, but only if the Minister is satisfied that the privacy impacts on individuals are proportionate to the benefits to other relevant ADF persons from the activity. Before making the guidelines, the Minister must seek and have regard to advice from the Australian Information Commissioner.
Existing requirements under the Privacy Act 1988 for medical research will continue to apply, including oversight by Human Research Ethics Committees. Defence has undertaken a detailed assessment of the privacy implications throughout the development of the Bill and identified additional safeguards for implementation, in partnership with the Department of Veterans' Affairs for joint activities.
These include strengthened governance and oversight arrangements, privacy training for personnel handling information, periodic reviews of information-sharing activities, updated privacy notices and policies, and enhanced security and data quality controls. Where new or changed handling of personal information in reliance on the new framework is likely to have a significant impact on personal privacy, Defence and the Department of Veterans' Affairs will undertake privacy impact assessments, as required under the Privacy (Australian Government Agencies—Governance) APP Code 2017.
The safeguards in the Bill and the additional measures Defence will implement, in partnership with the Department of Veterans' Affairs, respond to the Committee's recommendation and support the appropriate use of information to improve wellbeing, health and safety outcomes while protecting the privacy of ADF members, veterans and their families. Recommendation 2 The Committee recommends that the Bill be amended to ensure that recommendation 22 of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide is implemented in full.
Specifically, the Committee recommends that the Bill be amended to make clear that a conviction of any sexual offence (including stalking and intimate image abuse), not just serious violent and sexual offences, regardless of the sentence imposed, prevent a person from being accepted for service under proposed section 22A and require the end of th eir service under proposed section 27A.
Response: The Government notes this recommendation. The Government does not consider that further amendment to the Bill is necessary. The Government considers that the Bill implements RCDVS recommendation 22, when combined with existing separation processes.
The recommendation was expressed at a high level and did not prescribe the legislative mechanism by which mandatory discharge should occur. It recommended that Defence adopt a policy of mandatory discharge for ADF members convicted of sexual and related offences, including stalking and intimate image abuse. The Bill implements part of this recommendation by providing for automatic separation from service where an ADF member is convicted of an offence against an Australian law and sentenced to a period of imprisonment, including a suspended sentence.
It also prevents a person who has been sentenced to imprisonment for a serious violent or sexual offence from joining the ADF. The extension of the framework to serious violent offences further strengthens workforce safety and public confidence in the ADF. There are limited circumstances in which separation from service can occur without a notice or procedural fairness.
Requirements for procedural fairness necessitate implementation of this recommendation through commencing mandatory separation processes under the Defence Regulations 2026 (related to any finding where a member is found to have committed any act of sexual violence) and through mandatory separation upon imprisonment as a matter of law (through proposed section 27A of the Bill).
The Government considers a sentence of imprisonment to be an appropriate statutory threshold for automatic consequences. It provides a clear, objective and nationally consistent indicator that a court has assessed the offending as sufficiently serious to warrant a custodial sentence. A conviction-based model could capture a broad range of offending resulting in fines, good behaviour orders or other non-custodial outcomes.
The imprisonment threshold provides a clear and readily identifiable statutory threshold that does not depend on differences in how convictions are recorded or treated across jurisdictions. Where a sentence of imprisonment is not imposed, in addition to the existing powers under the regulations, the Bill would enable the CDF or an authorised delegate to determine that a conviction, including for a sexual or related offence, renders a person unsuitable for service or continued service.
This framework allows separation to occur while preserving discretion to consider the nature, seriousness and circumstances of the offending on a case-by-case basis, avoiding unintended outcomes that can arise from the application of an inflexible mandatory rule. The inclusion of proposed section 22A of the Bill creates a bar to joining the Defence Force if certain previous convictions were recorded against a person to preclude those with historical serious violent and sexual offence convictions from joining the Defence Force.
The amendments to the Defence Regulations in December 2025 and supporting policy established a clear requirement to initiate involuntary separation for members who have committed acts of sexual violence, establishing a consistent and enforceable legal mechanism for mandatory discharge, which the Bill has further strengthened. The Government remains committed to maintaining the integrity of and public confidence in the ADF, including through a zero-tolerance approach to sexual and related offences.
Recommendation 3 The Committee recommends that the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission includes information in its annual report about the number of own motion final inquiry reports that were not tabled in Parliament within the reporting period. Response: The Government agrees-in-part with this recommendation. The Government recognises the importance of transparency regarding the exercise of the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission's own-motion inquiry functions.
Schedule 5 of the Bill would restore the intended flexibility for the Commissioner to provide a final own-motion inquiry report to the Minister for information without triggering a requirement for the report to be tabled in Parliament. The Commissioner would retain the ability to request tabling where appropriate. This approach is consistent with the RCDVS's expectation that not every report of its recommended entity would require tabling and some reports may be made public without being tabled, subject to appropriate protections for sensitive information.
Section 87 of the Defence and Veterans' Service Commissioner Act 2026 already requires the Commissioner to report annually on inquiries commenced and completed. Consistent with the Committee's recommendation, the Commission will also report on the number of own-motion final inquiry reports that were not tabled in Parliament during the reporting period. This will provide transparency about the use of the Commissioner's discretion while preserving the flexibility intended by Schedule 5.
Recommendation 4 The Committee recommends that the Bill be amended to require that the Surgeon General of the Australian Defence Force be a registered medical practitioner with specialist qualifications. Response: The Government notes this recommendation. The Government does not consider it necessary to amend the Bill to mandate that the Surgeon General ADF (SGADF) to be a registered medical practitioner with specialist qualifications.
The SGADF is not a statutory office established by the Bill. The Chief of the Defence Force appoints the position under command arrangements. It would be unusual to prescribe qualifications in legislation for a non-statutory position, particularly where many specialised Defence roles are subject to professional requirements set through command, policy and administrative arrangements.
Prescribing qualifications in the Bill could also unnecessarily constrain the Chief of the Defence Force's command authority and Defence's ability to determine the qualifications and experience appropriate to the role over time. Defence's longstanding practice has been to appoint an appropriately qualified medical practitioner to the SGADF role. Defence will continue to ensure that appropriate professional and clinical requirements for the position are maintained through command and administrative arrangements.
Accordingly, the Government does not propose to amend the Bill. Recommendation 5 The Committee recommends that the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission conduct a review into the effectiveness of the measures implemented by the Bill within 24 months of the commencement of the Bill and table its findings in Parliament. Response: The Government agrees-in-part with this recommendation.
The Government recognises the important role of the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission in independently evaluating the implementation of the Government's response to the RCDVS. Under section 10 of the Defence and Veterans' Service Commissioner Act 2026, the Commission is required to conduct inquiries into the implementation of the RCDVS recommendations, with a relevant statutory reporting date of 2 December 2030.
The Commission will review the effectiveness of the measures in the Bill that contribute to the implementation of the RCDVS recommendations through this statutory process. Its report will be provided to the Minister by 2 December 2030 and subsequently tabled in Parliament. This represents a longer timeframe than the 24 months proposed by the Committee.
The Government considers the review will provide valuable insight into whether the measures are operating as intended and delivering improved wellbeing, health and safety outcomes for ADF members, veterans and their families. Additional Comment from Coalition Senators: The Government should continue to engage with serving ADF members, veterans and ex-service organisations regarding the operation of the information-sharing provisions and ensure appropriate privacy safeguards, transparency measures and complaint mechanisms are in place.
Response: The Government agrees with this comment. The Government recognises the importance of maintaining the confidence of ADF members, veterans and their families in the information-sharing framework established by the Bill. The Bill contains a range of privacy safeguards, and the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles will continue to apply.
Defence and the Department of Veterans' Affairs will continue to engage with stakeholders throughout the implementation of the reforms as appropriate, including on the operation of the framework, applicable privacy protections and available avenues for complaint and review. Existing privacy complaint mechanisms, including the ability to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, will continue to apply.