THE Senate yesterday passed the controversial Maintenance Bill, despite the insistence of Opposition members that the bill be referred to a joint select committee of Parliament to allow for public submissions.

Leader of Opposition Business Senator Anthony Johnson said that the Opposition had been misled into thinking that Attorney General and Minister of Justice A J Nicholson had postponed closing the debate on October 13 in order to allow for the inclusion of comments from the public.

He said that he was surprised that the government came prepared yesterday to close the debate, without any discussions between himself and the Leader of the Government Business, Senator Burchell Whiteman, or any indication from Nicholson as to whether there had been any public discussions.

“When we last met, the Hon Attorney General had indicated that he would be ensuring that there would be some public participation, or public discussion on aspects of the Maintenance Bill, and that this would be something to which the Leader and myself would be privy,” Senator Johnson noted. “I have not heard anything of the matter since, and I notice that we have before us today a very substantial list of amendments.”

Johnson said that even if the government did not wish to involve him in any further discussion, “I just want to say that having only just seen this document, it would have been good if, somehow, we had been made privy to it so that we would have a basis to form a judgment on substantial issues on which we might well agree”.

But Whiteman responded, “I believe the member is labouring under a misapprehension.

“Before we concluded two weeks ago, the discussions to which the minister of justice referred was a discussion, which he mooted, between the Leader of Opposition Business and myself, in relation to how much time would elapse between that sitting and when we resume. We did not in fact have a discussion, but the question was really between meeting last week or meeting this week. We clearly did not meet last week… so it was to be presumed that we would meet this week and that is, as far as I am concerned, the extent of my error,” Senator Whiteman said.

The government then proceeded to have the bill passed with eight amendments, including provisions for prenuptial agreements, as well as two recommendations from Opposition member Senator Dorothy Lightbourne.

The first was to widen the powers of the court to enquire into the means of the respondent, as well as the defendant, instead of only the defendant’s.

The other requires the court to consider reciprocity in obligations for maintenance of parents by children who are not minors, including issues such as abuse and absentee parenting, when considering maintenance of parents by children.

The bill seeks to repeal the Maintenance Act and Affiliation Acts to ensure that spouses are maintained by their partners; parents maintain unmarried children; and adults maintain their parents and grandparents. It was tabled in July by Senator Nicholson.