The chambers were offline but the committees sure weren't

Three weeks off the floor doesn't mean three weeks off

Seventeen committee hearings and ten reports landed during the recess, one of the busiest recesses of the year. Six cities, reports on everything from illicit tobacco to the generational divide in who can afford a house, and one senator calling her own colleagues' findings "wholly disingenuous."

Public hearings

• Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence (aph.gov.au): held four hearing days for its inquiry into artificial intelligence in Sydney and Melbourne
• Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme: held hearings on its second annual report for the 48th Parliament (aph.gov.au) on 6 October (Perth) and 7 October (Adelaide)
• Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: a combined hearing on 1 October in Canberra covering two inquiries, the Fiji-Australia Vuvale Union (aph.gov.au) and the Ocean of Peace Alliance (the Veitacini Treaty) (aph.gov.au)
• Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works: a hearing on 30 September in Darwin on facilities to support AIR 6500 integrated air and missile defence command and control at RAAF Base Darwin (aph.gov.au)
• Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters: held hearings on its inquiry into the 2025 federal election (aph.gov.au) on 23 September (Darwin) and 24 September (Perth)
• House Standing Committee on Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water: held hearings on its inquiry into solar panel reuse and recycling (aph.gov.au) on 24 September (Sydney) and 6 October (Canberra) House Select Committee on Cyber Security for Small to Medium Sized Businesses and Organisations (aph.gov.au): held a hearing on 6 October in Canberra
• House Standing Committee on Primary Industries: held hearings on its inquiry into critical minerals (aph.gov.au) on 28 September (Brisbane) and 29 September (Mackay)
• Senate Environment and Communications References Committee: a hearing on 30 September in Canberra on its Australia Post retail network inquiry (aph.gov.au), and hearings on its inquiry into artificial intelligence and data centres (aph.gov.au) on 22 September (Lane Cove) and 23 September (Yarraville)
• Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee: a hearing on 24 September in Canberra on the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner and Other Measures) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au), and a hearing on 23 September in Perth on the Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au)
• Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee: a hearing on 22 September in Canberra on the Crimes Amendment (Prohibiting the Strip Searching of Children) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au); a hearing the same day on the Crimes Amendment (Prohibiting Shackling During Childbirth) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au); and a hearing on 21 September on the Criminal Code Amendment (National Sport Integrity Offences) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au), which responds to the Wood Review into sports integrity
• Senate Community Affairs References Committee: a hearing on 22 September in Canberra on its long-running Support at Home Program inquiry (aph.gov.au)
• Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee: a hearing on 21 September in Canberra on the Defence Amendment (Sexual Assault Prevention, Intervention and Response Commission) Bill 2025 (aph.gov.au).

Reports tabled

Senate committees tabled all ten reports that landed in this window; nothing was due from a Joint or House committee.

• Community Affairs Legislation Committee Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au), tabled 7 October, recommends the bill pass after 665 submissions and four hearings; the Coalition and Greens filed dissents. The Coalition argues the government never consulted APRA and understated the fallout, pointing to Catholic Health Australia modelling that suggests roughly one in five over-65s will downgrade cover (against the bill's one-in-75 assumption), and a Parliamentary Budget Office estimate of 1.5 million pensioners affected (not 1.2 million). The Greens back the intergenerational equity goal but warn an unmeans-tested cut to the rebate could push lower-income pensioners onto an already stretched public hospital system, with no guarantee the savings follow them there. Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner and Other Measures) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au), tabled 9 October, dealt only with the government's Schedule 4 amendment (the bill itself passed the House on 17 September). Schedule 4 creates a new escalation pathway for aged care assessments after evidence the Integrated Assessment Tool under Support at Home has been under-assessing people with cognitive issues, frailty and mental health conditions, and scraps the existing 90-day deemed-decision rule for internal reviews. The committee recommended passage as amended.
• Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee Crimes Amendment (Prohibiting Shackling During Childbirth) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au), tabled 7 October, has not recommended the bill pass, on the grounds that prisons are a State and Territory matter and the bill creates no offence, penalty or enforcement mechanism of its own. Instead it recommends engagement with the other jurisdictions, and start collecting national data annually on how many women give birth in custody. Senator Thorpe (Independent), who introduced the bill, dissented in blunt terms, calling the majority position "wholly disingenuous", noting the evidence to the inquiry was unanimous in support. Criminal Code Amendment (National Sport Integrity Offences) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au), tabled 2 October, recommended passage, but the Coalition wants further amendments to narrow the bill and Senator Shoebridge (Greens) pointed out the bill never once mentions gambling or wagering despite betting markets driving match-fixing, and that it leaves out the Macolin Convention's whistleblower protections. Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Enforcement Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2026 (aph.gov.au), tabled 8 October, recommended passage. The Coalition cited ABS figures showing illicit tobacco's share of the market rising from 12 per cent in 2017 to 80 per cent in 2025, and argues enforcement alone won't work while the price gap with legal tobacco keeps widening; the Greens want a track-and-trace scheme and tighter state licensing layered on top.
• Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee Defence Amendment (Sexual Assault Prevention, Intervention and Response Commission) Bill 2025 (aph.gov.au), tabled 7 October, stopped short of recommending the bill pass, instead asking Defence and the separate Defence and Veterans' Service Commission to weigh the evidence in their own ongoing work on sexual violence in the ADF. Senator Lambie (Jacqui Lambie Network), who introduced the bill, wants it amended so it can still proceed with minimal delay, while flagging worry that yet another formal inquiry risks compounding fatigue for victim-survivors.
• Environment and Communications References Committee 2025 Optus Triple Zero outage (aph.gov.au), tabled 21 September, after six hearings and a postponement of original tabling, made eleven recommendations including that government consider establishing a statutory authority to take over the Emergency Call Person function Telstra currently holds, a mandatory reliability framework with penalties and automatic compensation for outage-hit consumers, mandatory mobile roaming during outages, and a reliable text-based way to reach triple zero. Coalition senators, who initiated the inquiry, back most of the recommendations but not the statutory authority or mandatory roaming; Labor senators broadly support the report while flagging that the compensation scheme needs more consultation first.
• Interim reports seeking time were tabled on its Australia Post retail network (aph.gov.au) inquiry and greenwashing (aph.gov.au) inquiry.
• Select Committee on Intergenerational Housing Inequity Locked out: the growing generational housing divide (aph.gov.au), tabled 30 September after 185 submissions and eight hearings, shows the committee could not reach consensus. Committee chair Senator B Pocock (Greens) points to the roughly $229,000 in profit each bank makes over the life of an average 30-year mortgage. Labor senators point to the government's $47 billion Homes for Australia (treasury.gov.au) plan and the National Housing Accord (treasury.gov.au)'s target of 1.2 million new homes by June 2029. Coalition senators blame housing tax changes - they estimate at $77 billion and cause supply to drop by 35,000 dwellings over a decade - and the Housing Australia Future Fund (housingaustralia.gov.au)'s slow start, with 1,432 of its 40,000-home target delivered as of April, half of those purchased rather than built.

Parliament resumes tomorrow with an ever growing intensity of focus and pressure stemming from fuel prices, inflation and artificial intelligence. Senate Estimates is the following week and eyes will be on many key issues Senators have already started to flag interest in, such as OpenAI agents gaining unauthorised access to Medicare data, the ongoing interest in the proposed sale of assets in Defence's estate and the cost of living alongside migration and housing supply to name but three.

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Until tomorrow!

— Mia