Australia’s parliamentary model of rights protection depends in large part on the capacity of the federal Parliament to scrutinise the law-making activities of the Executive government. Emergency law-making undertaken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the Australian Parliament’s capacity to provide meaningful scrutiny of proposed laws, particularly identifying and addressing the impact of emergency powers on the rights of individuals. In this context, the work of parliamentary committees has become increasingly important. Special committees, such as the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19, have been set up to provide oversight and review of Australia’s response to the pandemic. This article gives an early glimpse into the key features of the COVID-19 Committee and the way it may interact with other committees within the federal system to scrutinise the government's legislative response to the pandemic. It also offers some preliminary thoughts on the capacity of these committees to deliver meaningful rights scrutiny.

中文翻译：

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审查 COVID-19 法律：初步了解联邦议会委员会的审查工作

澳大利亚的议会权利保护模式在很大程度上取决于联邦议会审查行政政府立法活动的能力。为应对 COVID-19 大流行而进行的紧急立法挑战了澳大利亚议会对拟议法律进行有意义审查的能力，尤其是确定和解决紧急权力对个人权利的影响的能力。在此背景下，议会委员会的工作变得越来越重要。已经成立了特别委员会，例如参议院 COVID-19 特别委员会，以监督和审查澳大利亚对大流行的反应。本文初步了解了 COVID-19 委员会的主要特征，以及它可能与联邦系统内其他委员会互动以审查政府对大流行的立法反应的方式。它还提供了一些关于这些委员会进行有意义的权利审查的能力的初步想法。