Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations has provided the following answer to the honourable senator’s question:

(1) The final version of the report published on 2 August 2012 was not altered from that provided to me on 15 June 2012.

(2) The final version of the report was presented to the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) for final assessment on Thursday 14 June 2012 via email at 10.07 am. The OBPR advised my Department that report met their requirements for a PIR on Friday 17 June 2012 via email at 10.03 am. There were ongoing discussions with OBPR throughout the development of the report to ensure that is would meet the Government’s best practice regulation requirements.

(3) The final report was first provided to the Minister’s office in electronic format on Friday 15 June 2012 at 1.33 pm. Hard copies of the report were forwarded to the Minister’s office later that afternoon.

(4) Drafts of the report were circulated to several officers from my Department during the drafting of the report for fact checking and/or technical advice. Several drafts of the report were also provided to the OBPR during the final six weeks of the review.

The draft report was also provided to my Department’s communications area to prepare for printing, and to an external editor for copy editing prior to being finalised.