Senate debates

Thursday, 18 October 2018

Bills

Government Procurement (Judicial Review) Bill 2017; In Committee

11:26 am

Photo of Rex PatrickRex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I will point out that I'm disturbed about the previous answer, where you talked about the five companies, with one company being dragged into the courts and the other four ending up being affected. I think that's something the government ought to consider very carefully, because a lot of those companies will be small businesses unable to bear the cost of simply running project teams on for lengthy periods while a court matter is dealt with.

I want to go to the intersection between the judicial review of a procurement and its interaction with ISDS. I note that ISDS provisions are only available to foreign companies here in Australia, as Assistant Minister Reynolds told me yesterday. If an international company makes an application under this bill and it is litigated, and they are unsuccessful, does that waive their right to then raise an ISDS claim against the government that might be closely related to the matter that has been determined in the court?

Comments

No comments