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There have been a number of events that have taken place already in the senate so far this term.

Freedom of Information Act Amendment:

This bill was initiated by TheBlackAdder, with the intention of making the senate more transparent to the eAustralian public (which can only be a good thing). Specifically, it would give citizens the ability to see the voting hall. Secondly, it asked whether a new sub-forum for sensitive votes should be created in the voting hall, or whether they should remain in the sensitive issues forum (In my opinion, the second vote was for little more then personal preference).

The bill was accepted, with a vote of 20-1 (and 1 abstained). The second voting option was enacted as a new sub-forum within the voting hall. (12-6).

Second Deputy Speaker:

A bill was proposed by Alex Australis to amend the Senate Protocol Act. to allow the Senator who come second in the Speaker vote to become a second Deputy Speaker if they wish to do so. This vote was passed 14-0, which meant that Newt Gingrich was able to become a deputy speaker.

Senate Public Information Act:

A proposal was put forward by Patrick Reckitt to give the speaker/deputy speaker the authority to write a weekly report on the senate’s activities, and that this report will summarise the activities of the week, such as the acts and amendments that have taken place, etc.

The vote was narrowly voted down, 12-10. The main reasons for this are that, ideally, it should be the responsibility of the Minister of Information to distribute information about the senate’s activities. (hence this article).

Release of Sensitive Information Amendment:

A second proposal was initiated by Patrick Reckitt regarding the release of Sensitive Information to the eAustralian public. The bill stated that this would make proposals put into the sensitive section of the senate forum publicly available after a period of one month.

The vote on this topic was rejected 11-7 (with 5 people abstaining). Worth noting from this was Xavier’s discussion post, which pointed out that unless a document was specifically marked as “Senate Secret” (which the vast majority aren’t), then after a period of one month these documents should be automatically de-classified. What this means for the public is that, if they so desire, they should be able to see most of these documents.

Overseas Oil Company Bill:

This bill was created by Son of Rambo and was created with the intent of creating an Oil company in Mexico (46-47 gold in total to set it up) to enable oil to be shipped from a high oil region to Australia. The main benefit of this would have been the Moving Tickets industry in particular, who would have been able to be supplied oil from overseas company (and thus, help to reduce costs of moving tickets).

The bill was rejected in a vote by 14-7 (with two abstaining). Debate on the proposal was quite animated, with a total of 31 postings to that topic alone. From reading the comments of senators, the two main reason why this bill was that a) senators believed that the costs wouldn’t be worth the potential gain, and/or b) because they believed that the government really intervene into the marketplace.

Government Act Revocation Bill:

This bill was initiated by Xavier Griffith, with the aim of revoking the “old and outdated and unused Acts in the Policies Section of the Governments Forums and the moving of these revoked Acts to a newly created sub-forum called "Policy Archives". There were 4 components in total to be altered. The first was the Department of Industry Budget Act (it no longer applies because senate votes upon the budget, rather than the Minister/Department of Industry). The second was a bill for the purchase of a Q5 hospital in Victoria (which was built 2 months ago). The third and fourth were the C4TA act from may, and the salvation army act from April. Was not an eCitizen when these bills took place, but the third bill was, according to Xavier, replaced by the iTCorp, and the Salvation Army act was never enacted, so should be removed.

In short – this bill was intended to help get rid of the policies that we don’t need anymore (This bill passed through senate with a vote of 17-0)

Senate Positions:

Senate Speaker:

Melchizedek Smith beat Newt Gingrich in a vote of 15-14

Deputy Speaker:

Derek Apollyon beat Xavier Griffith in a vote of 11-3. Patrick Reckitt was originally nominated for this position as well as Derek and Xavier, however, he withdrew his nomination to instead focus upon being the deputy of the newly created Ministry of Immigration, Customs and Security Ranger Bob's Cabinet. Xavier, too, withdrew his nomination, as he believed that time constraints would not enable him to do a very good job if elected.

Inspector General:

Alex Australis beat Johnathon Brown in a vote of 16-10.

Resignation of Newt Gingrich:

At the time of this occurrence, the bill had been passed which allowed Newt Gingrich to become a second Deputy Speaker (see above or this for further details. However, a few days ago, Newt Gingrich resigned. . The reasons for him having done so are because with Ranger Bob set to become prime minister, Newt would be given the opportunity to represent eAustralia as its deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (dMoFA).

Joining of the Sol Alliance:

Another recent proposal to have been voted upon by senate (via the sensitive section) was a proposal to join the newly formed regional alliance known as the Sol Alliance. The discussion for this is here . Current members of this alliance are: The current members of this alliance are Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore.

This alliance is a regional alliance (i.e. the Asia-Pacific Region) with the intent being to increase the defensive capacities of the members and to build better relationships through the alliance (both diplomatic and economic).

As well as these over-arching benefits, there is also a specific and immediate side-benefit of this alliance. That is war games .

War games have immense advantages to us both as individuals and as a nation. Individually, they can help us keep our wellness levels high. As an eNation, we benefit because higher citizen wellness means more productivity. For more specific information on how to use war-games to increase your wellness, a good example is the Eureka eHandbook .

The final thing that should be mentioned with regards to this alliance is the defensive requirements of it. As was stated earlier, it aims to increase defence and security in the region (and it should be noted at this point, that although eIndonesia are not directly members of this alliance, they have indicated that they are broadly supportive of this alliance, in the interests of regional stability).

According to the Charter of Operations, each member of the alliance gets an equal vote. If it is voted that the reason for the invasion is unprovoked (that is to say… the country being attacked didn’t attack the other nation first) then it will be voted that we will come to their aid. In this way, the alliance is more about security and regional stability than it is about pushing an individual nation’s own agenda.

Finally - All senate documents regarding this alliance will be de-classified (brought out from the sensitive section) and made publicly available shortly.

Other important links that you should know about:

This article, written by AusEaid, contains a list of highly useful links to just about everything you might want to know. I suggest that you go there and take a look. 🙂