David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) on 25 August 2025, the Senate rejected a claim of cabinet confidentiality advanced by the Minister for the Public Service in relation to order for the production of documents no. 10 (the order), and ordered the minister to table the document, and

(ii) the minister has again failed to comply with that order by advancing the same claim of cabinet confidentiality;

(b) notes further guidance in Odgers' Australian Senate Practice that a claim that a document is a cabinet document should not be accepted if it has not been established that disclosure of the document would reveal cabinet deliberations; and

(c) requires the Minister for the Public Service to attend the Senate on Thursday, 28 August 2025 at the conclusion of question time to provide an explanation of no more than 5 minutes as to how the release of document would reveal the deliberations of the cabinet, and that:

(i) any senator may move to take note of the explanation, and

(ii) any such motion may be debated for no longer than 20 minutes and shall have precedence over all business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 5 minutes each.