Economy and Infrastructure Committee [Legislative Council]

Full description

The Economy and Infrastructure Committee is a Standing Committee of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Victoria. The Committee was established following amendments made to the Legislative Council’s Standing Orders in 2010. Members were first appointed in 2011.

The committee's functions are to inquire into and report on any proposal, matter or thing concerned with agriculture, commerce, infrastructure, industry, major projects, public sector finances and transport.

Standing Committees

Standing Committees are ongoing House inquiry committees established by Standing Orders. According to section 23.02 of the Legislative Council’s Standing Orders and section 202 of the Legislative Assembly’s Standing Orders, at the commencement of each parliament, standing committees are to be appointed for Economy and Infrastructure, Environment and Planning, and Legal and Social Issues in each House of Parliament.

The three Standing Committees were introduced to the Legislative Council after amendments to the Council’s Standing Orders were made in October 2010. These Standing Committees were later established in the Legislative Assembly in the 2019 amendment of the Assembly’s Standing Orders.

Initially, each Council Standing Committee was divided into Legislative Committees and Reference Committees, although in practice these committees shared members and acted as one. While Legislative Committees were concerned with Bills, draft Bills, annual reports and estimates of expenditures, Reference Committees were concerned with matters referred to them by the Council. The Legislative and Reference committee types were removed in the 2023 amendments of the Council’s Standing Orders, mirroring the structure already introduced in the Assembly. Assembly Standing Committees differ to Council committees in that the Assembly committees are only concerned with matters relating to specific Departments.