Greens support senate inquiry into Coalition's Calvary takeover bill

Queensland LNP senator Matt Canavan's Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Amendment Bill 2023, a private senators' bill, has been referred to the Labor-controlled Senate's legal and constitutional affairs legislative committee.

Senator Canavan regards it as his "plan B" after the Coalition failed to get support last week for a inquiry by the Senate committee.

"I would have preferred to have an inquiry to a references committee which generally speaking provides a little bit more length and scope to an inquiry. And, I think, would have been perhaps the relevant committee for this type of topic," he told The Canberra Times.

"It still provides the opportunity for people from Canberra to make submissions hopefully we'll have a hearing that's up to the committee and people can have their say about something that's of great significance to the people of Canberra."

He said he wants the Labor-Greens ACT government to be more upfront about exactly why they're doing the force acquisition and how they think it's going to work.

"I continually hear from people about the great difficulties here in taking over a hospital in a matter of weeks," Senator Canavan said. "And so both the reasons for the urgency haven't been properly explained."

"We don't bite in the Senate, but we can we can get to the bottom of things."

The forced acquisition, the biggest in the history of the ACT's self-government, has emerged after negotiations between the ACT government and the Little Company of Mary, the Catholic organisation that runs Calvary, broke down.

The ACT government, and the federal government through Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, insists the takeover is about restructuring healthcare and it is not driven by religion.

A new amendment to a motion supported today asked that "in respect of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Amendment Bill 2023, the bill be referred immediately to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 9 August 2023".

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The federal Greens voted with Coalition senators on Thursday to send the bill to a Senate committee which will further look into the bill and the takeover.

"I'll let the ACT Greens speak for themselves. This is a run of the mill matter of Senate procedure," Greens leader Adam Bandt told reporters.

"There's a long-standing practice in this place where private members' bills are able to be referred to inquiries. And it is something that historically, as I understand, that all parties have abided by. So it's a procedural matter."

He denied the Greens had struck a deal with the Coalition over the ACT inquiry, nor had it bought into the Coalition's concerns about religion.

"No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. This is just a run of the mill way the Senate operates and our position is very, very crystal clear we support the ACT Greens," Mr Bandt said.

The ACT Greens have backed their federal counterparts.

"The Greens support almost all private members' bills being refereed to committee, as do Labor. It's standard process," Emma Davidson, the ACT Greens Minister for Mental Health said in a statement.

"The federal Labor Party choosing to create a political wedge in the Senate on this, is nothing but a cheap stunt. Referring private members bills to committee doesn't equate to supporting the bill, The Greens will never support this legislation."

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