Selection of Bills Committee

Tony Sheldon

I present the 13th report of 2026 of the Selection of Bills Committee. I seek leave to have the report incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The report read as follows—

Selection of Bills Committee

REPORT NO. 13 OF 2026

15 October 2026

MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE

Senator Tony Sheldon (Government Whip, Chair)

Senator Maria Kovacic (Opposition Whip)

Senator Sean Bell (One Nation Whip)

Senator Nick McKim (Australian Greens Whip)

Senator Ralph Babet

Senator Ross Cadell (The Nationals Whip)

Senator the Hon. Anthony Chisholm

Senator Jessica Collins

Senator the Hon. Katy Gallagher

Senator Jacqui Lambie

Senator Kerrynne Liddle

Senator Fatima Payman

Senator David Pocock

Senator Lidia Thorpe

Secretary: Tim Bryant 02 6277 3020

SELECTION OF BILLS COMMITTEE

REPORT NO. 13 OF 2026

1. The committee met in private session on Wednesday, 14 October 2026 at 7.08 pm.

1. The committee recommends that—

(a) contingent upon introduction in the House of Representatives, the provisions of the Domestic Gas Reservation Bill 2026, Domestic Gas Reservation Levy Bill 2026, and Domestic Gas Reservation (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2026 be referred immediately to the Economics Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 11 November 2026 (see appendix 1 for statement of reasons for referral),

(b) the provisions of the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026 be referred immediately to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 20 November 2026 (see appendix 2 for statements of reasons for referral), and

(c) the provisions of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 3) Bill 2026 and Income Tax Rates Amendment (Minimum Tax on Discretionary Trusts) Bill 2026 be referred immediately to the Economics Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 13 November 2026 (see appendix 3 for statements of reasons for referral).

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

(Tony Sheldon)

Chair

15 October 2026

I move:

That the report be adopted.

Katy Gallagher

I move:

At the end of the motion, add "and the Members of Parliament (Staff) Amendment (Safe Staffing Guarantee) Bill 2026 not be referred to a committee".

Pauline Hanson

():  I move:

At the end of the motion, add:

"and, in respect of the Members of Parliament (Staff) Amendment (Safe Staffing Guarantee) Bill 2026, the bill be referred immediately to the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 24 November 2026".

What we have found in this parliament, under the current Labor government, is that the Prime Minister determines the staffing numbers for whichever political party or Independent, right across this whole chamber. I think it's terribly wrong, what is happening here. The Prime Minister's office should not determine who gets staffing and how many staff they have.

The number of personal advisers that One Nation has is five. That's for six members of parliament. The Labor Party has 507. The Prime Minister personally has 59 staff. If you look at the Liberal Party, Angus Taylor has 35 personal staff. If you look at Senator Payman—I'll speak on her behalf as well—she's got none. Why? It's because she dared to walk away from the Labor Party. So those people who do not support the Labor Party are getting punished through not having the staffing.

What we have requested is an inquiry into this. Who's going to block it? The Liberal Party. The Liberal and National parties want to block this. Why? Are we all treated fairly, across the range of political parties? No. Basically, it is: 'Let's hurt the ones who do not support us. Let's hurt the ones who are not led like sheep in this place and who have a voice for the Australian people. Let's hurt them by denying them the staff that they need to run their offices.' It is quite clear.

What I find amazing is that, although the government has also damaged the coalition—a loss to their staff—the coalition says, 'We don't want to have an inquiry into this.' They're shutting down the inquiry. So it's the uniparty again. I want the public to know this. It is the uniparty again colluding to cause as much damage as they can to the independent ones who were elected to the parliament. And I think it's wrong.

There have been some comments, including from, just off the top of my head, Senator McGrath. He said in a comment that it is 'vindictive'. Senator McGrath said that, but he's not standing up to support an inquiry. Isn't it funny! You just say these things to suit you at the time, but, when push comes to shove as far as putting it to an inquiry, you don't want to. Why doesn't the Liberal Party want to put it before an inquiry?

As far as I'm concerned, the Prime Minister should have no right to determine what staff levels are given out to crossbenchers or members of any party, whether they're in the lower house or the upper house. If we have a separate board that determines the wages, then why don't we have a separate board that determines the staffing levels—right across the board—for future parliaments? That's where it's important.

This is collusion by the major political parties now to do as much damage as they can to One Nation. Do you know why? You're scared of the rise of One Nation. You think you've had this tied up your way for all this time, and you are now getting challenged—but not by One Nation. You're being challenged by the people of this nation who are fed up with what you've been dishing out to them. They want change. They see that change with One Nation. That's why we won seven seats in South Australia and why we won the seat of Farrer, previously held by the Liberals for 77 years. That's why we won Secret Harbour, held by the Labor Party since 1989. That's why we look like we're going to pick up some seats in Victoria, and Labor will be gone. New South Wales—the same. And this is just a dirty trick again by the major political parties because of One Nation's rise.

All I'm asking for is what is fair. All I'm asking for is staff—two in my office; two advisers for a minor party. We are a parliamentary party. We are a parliamentary party, and you can't give us the number of staff that is equivalent. The Labor Party have approximately 4.7. We have 0.83 per cent, the lowest in this chamber. All I want is fairness.

Sean Bell

I'll just reiterate some of the points Senator Hanson made, because I think we need to be very clear about what's about to occur. Senator Hanson has a bill. It's gone before the Senate Standing Committee for the Selection of Bills. Consideration of that bill was proposed to be deferred, and now the Labor Party is moving an amendment to not refer the bill, which is very, very unusual.

I know a lot of what goes on here in the chamber is quite unusual to people watching, but to move an amendment to this particular report to block a bill from being referred to a committee, for the government to do that—I promise you it's very, very strange. What's also odd is to not see more support for this inquiry from the coalition, because much of what is in the bill that Senator Hanson has put forward actually mirrors things that the coalition have put forward in their own legislation. So I really would hope that the coalition actually show up to vote. I suspect what may happen is that the Greens and Labor block Senator Hanson's bill going to committee, and perhaps we might see others absent from the chamber. But I can tell you what is going on right now is an absolutely classic 'uniparty' stitch-up. That is what is occurring, because people in the coalition have been working with people in Labor to make sure that Senator Hanson's bill doesn't get to go to committee so we can't have that scrutiny.

Why would the coalition want to work to help protect Anthony Albanese? Isn't that fascinating? You quite often hear the coalition say: 'Well, we are here to defeat this bad Labor government. We are here to defeat the socialists.' Yet, when it suits them, they will work with the bad Labor government, with the socialists, to hurt One Nation. I can tell you this: when it comes to defeating a bad Labor government, One Nation is the one you can trust to make sure that strange deals and games aren't played. So much of what people see in this chamber doesn't make sense, and quite often that's intentional. You'll see games played, and things get said. But I can tell you right now it is very, very unusual for the Labor government to move a motion to block another party's bill from being referred.

Maria Kovacic

Maybe you should attend the chamber on Thursday mornings more often.

Sue Lines

Order!

Maria Kovacic

It happens every Thursday!

Sue Lines

Order!

Sean Bell

That's alright. I'm more than happy to have conversations with my colleagues in the chamber.

Sue Lines

I've called order about four times. Senator Bell has the right to be heard in silence.

Sean Bell

As you can see, members of the coalition are deeply upset that their little game is being exposed. They're deeply upset. But that will never stop us working on behalf of the people to hold this terrible Labor government to account. And I think Senator Payman has something to say about this too. Pay attention because there are games afoot. When people say that they are here to stop the Albanese Labor government—I know I trust that lady.

Long debate text truncated.