Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Bragg, I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) order for production of documents no. 784 agreed to by the Senate on 12 February 2025, requiring the Minister representing the Minister for Housing to table all documents that relate to the usage of availability payments by the Housing Australia Future Fund, was only partially complied with, as the return included significant redactions,

(ii) the Minister for Housing, in her response to the order, made a claim of public interest immunity on the basis of privacy concerns, damage to commercial interests and disclosure of Cabinet deliberations, and

(iii) notice of motion no. 42, agreed to by the Senate on 29 July 2025, sought the compliance of the Minister representing the Minister for Housing to the order, on the basis that the usage of public funds within a government agency falls within the public interest;

(b) rejects the public interest immunity claim made by the Minister for Housing on 22 August 2025 on the grounds of invasion of privacy and disclosure of commercially sensitive details, noting that:

(i) it must be established that some harm may occur because of the disclosure of the information sought by the order, and

(ii) any specific harm could be overcome by disclosing information in general terms without the identity of those to whom it relates; and

(c) requires the Minister representing the Minister for Housing to attend the Senate on Wednesday 3 September 2025, at the conclusion of the consideration of private senators' bills and immediately prior to government business being called on, to provide an explanation of no more than 5 minutes of the failure to comply with the order, 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 30 minutes and shall have precedence over all business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 5 minutes each.

Question agreed to.