Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I would ask you to confirm that, in accordance with the principles of House of Representatives committee procedure, all members of a committee are entitled to receive information commissioned by the committee both automatically and on request. I would like to ask whether, in your view, work commissioned by the Standing Committee on Family and Human Services at a cost of $17,000 should have been made available to all members of the committee to assist them in framing recommendations, particularly as this economic modelling would have had a significant bearing on a range of proposals that were being considered by the committee. Further, in your view, is it a breach of established procedures for a committee to adopt a final report and recommendations knowing that this vital information had not been made available to the Labor members of the committee?

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