Resolutions

Human Organs Trafficking

Consideration of the House of Assembly's resolution:

That this house—

1. Appoints a joint committee to inquire into and report on the operation of the Transplantation and Anatomy Act 1983, and whether it should be amended in respect to the trafficking in human organs and any related matters;

2. In the event of a joint committee being appointed the House of Assembly shall be represented by three members of the House of Assembly, of whom two shall form a quorum of House of Assembly members necessary to be present at all sittings of the committee.

(Continued from 18 March 2015.)

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:44): I move:

Amendment No 1—

Paragraph 1—Leave out 'That this house appoints a joint committee' and insert 'That in the opinion of this house a joint committee be appointed;

Amendment No 2—

Paragraph 2—Leave out 'it report no later than 3 December 2014'.

I move both of those amendments, first, because the other place cannot tell this place what to do, so we will remind them of their manners and, indeed, a joint committee, I understand, cannot be directed to report back by a certain date. Of course, we would hope that the committee will report back in a timely manner and that we will work positively in a cross-party fashion.

Members may not be aware, but this message comes to us to appoint this joint committee as a result of a briefing that was held in this parliament a few years back, where there were some concerns raised with regard to organ harvesting, in particular, organ harvesting tourism. A former attorney-general from Canada I do believe was hosted by the current Speaker, and that particular member for Croydon was very encouraging of cross-party alliances being formed to address this issue, and here we find ourselves today in furious cross-party support of ensuring that we take a look at this particular issue and look at ways to discourage Australians from participating in such an horrific practice. With those few words, I commend the resolution as proposed to be amended.

Amendments carried; resolution as amended agreed to.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: I move:

That in the event of this joint committee being appointed that this council will be represented on the committee by three members, of whom two shall form the quorum necessary to be present at all sittings of the committee and that members of the joint committee to represent the Legislative Council be the Hon. John Dawkins, the Hon. Kelly Vincent and myself, the mover.

Motion carried.