Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Emergency Response Consolidation) Bill 2008

The majority voted in favour of a motion "[t]hat the words proposed to be omitted (Mr Abbott’s amendment) stand part of the question", which means that the words that Liberal MP Tony Abbott wanted to change will remain unchanged.

Mr Abbott's amendment would have amended the original motion "[t]hat this bill be now read a second time"(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) with the following:

That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: “the House questions the approach reflected in this bill and: (1) calls on the Federal Government to impose a blanket ban on all pornographic material in prescribed areas; (2) calls on the Federal Government to prohibit the transport of pornographic material through any prescribed area; and (3) urges the Federal Government to leave in place the permit system amendments that have enabled access to public land.”

Background to the bill

In 2007, the Northern Territory National Emergency Response ('the Intervention') was introduced in response to a report called Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle Little Children are Sacred: The Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse.(Read more about the Little Children are Sacred report here. ) The intervention was controversial and has been a source of ongoing debate.

This latest bill changes and removes some of the measures introduced as part of the Intervention. In summary, it:

• prohibits certain pay television licensees from providing television channels that contain a large amount of R18+ programming to certain prescribed areas;
• permits transporting pornographic material through a prescribed area to a place outside the prescribed area (currently its presence for any purpose is prohibited);
• reintroduces elements of the permit system, which requires visitors to certain Aboriginal areas to first seek permission to enter the area; and
• enables community dependent roadhouses to be licensed as community stores.(See the bills digest for more information.)