Selection of Bills Committee

Karen Grogan

I present the third report of 2026 of the Selection of Bills Committee, and I seek leave to have the report incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The report read as follows—

Selection of Bills Committee

REPORT NO. 3 OF 2026

12 March 2026

MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE

Senator Tony Sheldon (Government Whip, Chair)

Senator Wendy Askew (Opposition Whip)

Senator Sean Bell (One Nation Whip)

Senator Nick McKim (Australian Greens Whip)

Senator Ralph Babet

Senator Leah Blyth

Senator the Hon. Matt Canavan (Nationals Whip)

Senator Susan McDonald (Acting Nationals Whip)

Senator the Hon. Anthony Chisholm

Senator Jessica Collins

Senator the Hon. Katy Gallagher

Senator Jacqui Lambie

Senator Fatima Payman

Senator David Pocock

Senator Lidia Thorpe

Secretary: Tim Bryant 02 6277 3020

SELECTION OF BILLS COMMITTEE

REPORT NO. 3 OF 2026

1. The committee met in private session on Wednesday, 11 March 2026 at 7.11 pm.

1. The committee made no recommendations to refer bills to committees.

1. The committee recommends that the following bill not be referred to a committee:

1. The committee deferred consideration of the following bills to its next meeting:

Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Amendment (Consideration of UNDRIP) Bill 2023

1. The committee considered the following bill but was unable to reach agreement.

(Tony Sheldon)

Chair

11 March 2026

I move:

That the report be adopted.

Katy Gallagher

I move the following amendment:

At the end of the motion, add ", and the Migration Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Bill 2026 not be referred to a committee".

David Shoebridge

I move the amendment circulated in Senator McKim's name:

At the end of the motion, add: "and, in respect of the Migration Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Bill 2026, the bill be referred immediately to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 27 June 2026".

We can see what's happening here. Labor, the coalition—and, no doubt, with their race-baiting friends in One Nation—have—

Sue Lines

Senator Shoebridge, withdraw that remark.

David Shoebridge

I withdraw that. Labor, the coalition and One Nation have all come together to try and shut the door today on 7,200 Iranians who have been granted visas that would entitle them to come to this country and then, when they're onshore, seek the protection of this country from a brutal regime and the bombs falling from Israeli and US planes and the missiles coming from Israeli and US warships and installations.

This is a war that all three of the war parties—Labor, the coalition and One Nation—support. You all support the war. You support your Uncle Donald, the fascist duck over in the United States, who has commenced this war in gross breach of international law—in obscene breach of international law. Now you see the consequences of the war that you support, congratulate and endorse. You see the consequences of this war in real people's lives. People are seeing their country destroyed from the air and attacked by its own regime. People are seeing black rain falling from the sky because of the Israeli and US bombs and missiles that have taken out huge oil reservoirs near Teheran.

You've seen the images of the school that was blown up by a US missile, now admitted to by the US—maybe not by Donald Trump, who's still pretending that the missile was stolen by some Iranian secret agent. But you don't mind the lies. You don't mind Donald Trump's lies, because you're supporting a war based on those lies, and now you see the consequences of it: the dead schoolkids, the grieving mums, the country in despair, the ripple of chaos around the region. With all of that, with that wave of despair passing over the Middle East, you then shut the door on 7,200 Iranians who could have had a chance for some safety.

Labor are trumpeting the fact that they gave a life raft to five or six incredibly brave Iranian women's football team players. It seems to me that Labor's position on helping the Iranian people—refugees that are coming from Iran—is that they will only help refugees if they can excel at sport and Labor can manipulate that for a media moment, or if Donald Trump rings them up at 2 am and tells them to. Unless you get the phone call from Donald Trump or you see it as a media opportunity, you do not care about Iranian people fleeing their regime or fleeing the war that you support—the war that the Albanese Labor government supports and has now made Australia a part of by deploying Australian troops.

Maybe next time, before you three war parties—Labor, the coalition and one Nation—support another illegal US war, you should reflect just for a moment upon the actual lives that you are destroying, the countries whose tearing apart you are supporting and the misery that you support every time you support another US forever war. Think about where it will end—because it turns out that, once your mate Donald starts one of these wars, the other side gets a vote in it too—and the unpredictability, chaos and violence that comes every time a nation starts a war.

So of course we want this to go to an inquiry. Let's be clear: we will do everything we can to stop you three war parties shutting the door on Iranian refugees. That's one of the reasons we want this to go to an inquiry which would report by 27 June. I would have shot this bill to the moon if we could have, to keep the door open so that this country can show some decency. As for those 7,200 Iranians, think about the grief that they're in and about this country shutting the door on them like this, Labor.

Nick McKim

Under Labor, Australia is at war with Iran, and, entirely predictably, that means the missiles, the armaments and the acid rain coming down not just on military installations in Iran but on the Iranian people—women, children and men. Innocent people, including schoolchildren, are being slaughtered in their droves, entirely predictably, and, entirely predictably, are being displaced in their tens and hundreds of thousands from their homes. And what is Labor doing to address the consequences—the predictable consequences—of its decision to enter Australia into a war with Iran, supported by the war parties in this place—the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation, led by Labor, the unholy alliance of war parties in this place? What is Labor doing to respond to the entirely predictable consequences of going to war with Iran? It is slamming the door closed in the faces of the very Iranians that are being displaced.

Sue Lines

Senator McKim, please resume your seat. Senator O'Sullivan.

Matt O'Sullivan

President, a point of order on relevance: this is a debate about the selection of bills and the Migration Act. We're hearing—

Sue Lines

Thank you, Senator O'Sullivan. This has been a wide-ranging debate, but, Senator McKim, if you could also talk about why it needs to go to a committee, thank you very much. Please continue.

Nick McKim

Thanks very much, President. As I was saying, this bill slams the door closed on Iranian people who are suffering the entirely predictable consequences of a war that Labor has let Australia into, full-throatedly supported by the coalition and by One Nation, and that is why this bill needs to go before a committee for a long and robust inquiry, because this parliament should hear the voices of the people that Labor, with the support of the coalition and one Nation, is slamming the door closed on. Let's be very clear: this is a bill that exposes that Labor is not prepared to face the consequences of its decision to send Australia into a war on Iran, a decision roundly supported by the war parties in this place: the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation.

This bill slams the door closed on innocent people who may well be trying to flee based on a well-founded fear of persecution and may well be intending to seek asylum in Australia. Andto be clear: they potentially need protection not only from matters internal to Iran but also from the bombs that Australia is playing a role in raining down on Iran. Of course the Iranian women's football team should have been offered asylum in Australia. Of course they should. But how cynical is it that the relevant minister, Mr Burke, would fly up and leverage that opportunity for his own media and for the government's media at the same time and on the same day that the government introduced legislation into this place to slam the door closed on many other Iranian women, children and men who were in an identical position except for the media profile?

They were instead taking shelter under their beds or any other place they could find to try to dodge the weapons from the military assault on Iran that Labor has joined Australia to. The hypocrisy from Labor is rank here. They join Australia to a war on Iran, rain the bombs down, rain the firestorm down, rain the acid down on the Iranian people and then slam the door closed on the consequences of a war that Labor was the first government in the world to cheer on and that Labor has subsequently joined Australia to. It's time for Labor to accept the consequences of its actions, and one of the consequences of its actions, entirely predictably, was the displacement of large numbers of Iranian people. Rather than slamming the door closed on them, we should be ensuring that we face up to the consequences, and Labor should be ensuring that it faces up to the consequences of its actions and provides an opportunity for them to claim asylum in this country.

Long debate text truncated.