Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

The Information Commissioner decided to investigate the immigration department in April following many complaints of missed deadlines and suspected cover-ups, including a complaint made by the member for Mayo about the department obstructing six requests for information relating to the Inverbrackie detention facility. For each and every FOI request the member for Mayo submitted to the immigration department they missed time frames and failed to maintain contact.

When it comes to open and transparent government Labor's spin is not matched by their actions. While the coalition supports this bill in principle, we believe it needs to be thoroughly examined by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs to ensure the amendments are fair and proper. The coalition just does not trust this government when it comes to the detail or even the broad.

I turn now to the Parliamentary Budget Office. The Parliamentary Budget Office commenced operations in July this year. Its functions are to prepare election policy costings upon the request of authorised party representatives and independent members of parliament and to prepare policy costings outside of the caretaker period upon the request of individual senators and members of parliament. In addition it will initiate its own work program in anticipation of client requests and also prepare responses to budget related non-policy costing requests of individual senators and members of parliament.

The Parliamentary Budget Office is also tasked with providing formal contributions on request to relevant parliamentary committee inquiries. The Parliamentary Budget Office is an exempt agency under the FOI Act so that its services can be provided on a confidential basis. However, there is no specific exemption for documents related to Parliamentary Budget Office requests that may be held by departments and other agencies, which may therefore not be protected against release under the FOI Act. The purpose of this bill is to amend the FOI Act to provide an exemption for information held by departments and agencies that relates to a confidential request to the Parliamentary Budget Office. It also provides that an agency is not required to give information as to the existence or non-existence of a document where it is exempt under the new provisions. The successful operation of the Parliamentary Budget Office requires that its services be requested and provided on a confidential basis. The integrity of its processes would be compromised if access to requests were available via a backdoor application to non-exempt agencies.

The bill's explanatory memorandum notes that the bill protects public order by enhancing public administration. Specifically the aim of the bill is to protect the integrity of the Parliamentary Budget Office. Maintaining the integrity of the office is an integral element of policy development and public administration. Senators and members may be reluctant to request such analysis from the office in the absence of certainty that information provided in response to confidential requests will not be released under the FOI Act. The aim of this amendment is to provide this assurance. Although existing exemptions may apply to some potential FOI requests relating to Parliamentary Budget Office related documents held by agencies, it cannot be confirmed with certainty that they would apply to all such requests.

Also agencies currently do not have the option of denying or confirming the existence of a confidential Parliamentary Budget Office request. In its submission to the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee inquiry into this bill, the Parliamentary Budget Office said:

… to facilitate its role in undertaking this confidential work for senators and members the Parliamentary Budget Office is an exempt agency under the FOI Act 1982. Without this exemption the Parliamentary Budget Office's effectiveness as a source of confidential budget analyses and policy costings would be seriously compromised. The proposed amendments to the FOI Act extend this logic to also provide an exemption under the FOI Act for information held by departments and agencies that relates to a confidential request to the Parliamentary Budget Office. The Parliamentary Budget Office is heavily reliant on other departments and agencies that relate to a confidential request to the office.

The Office of the Information Commissioner said in its submission that the exemption of the Parliamentary Budget Office would not be fully effective unless there is a similar exemption under the FOI Act for documents held by other agencies that reveal the contents of confidential communications between agencies and the Parliamentary Budget Office. The Information Commissioner did raise in its submission one concern raising the bill:

We raise for consideration whether a time limitation should be placed on the operation of the Parliamentary Budget Office exemption. The policy rationale for the exemption is that senators and members of the House of Representatives should have access to independent and non-partisan budget analysis and policy costings over the entire course of the three-year electoral cycle.

The commissioner believes it is not necessary that Parliamentary Budget Office documents should retain their exempt status for 20 years. The commission said a more reasonable limitation may be that the Parliamentary Budget Office exemption continues only for a short period after a general election, perhaps one year. No other concerns have been raised at this stage of the inquiry.

As I mentioned earlier, the bill has been referred to the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee for consideration of the adequacy of the scope of the proposed exemption and of any concerns raised, including that of the Information Commissioner. The coalition supports the bill. However, we foreshadow amendments in the Senate pending the Senate committee's final report on 19 November 2012.

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