Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting this motion. As already outlined to this chamber, the 48th Parliament has seen an increasingly inappropriate use of OPDs. The time to comply with OPDs is often unreasonable and sometimes impossible. The original OPD had a compliance date of midday tomorrow, Wednesday 26 November. Senator Bragg amended this motion at the last minute to provide an additional 24 hours, which does not make a material difference to the unreasonableness of this motion. The short timeframe of this OPD means it would not be possible to comply with. The number of OPDs has doubled since the 2022 election, and the scope of these requests has also expanded significantly. The Senate has agreed to an average of four OPDs per sitting day in the 48th Parliament, double the average of two per sitting day in the 47th Parliament and almost four times the average in the last term of the coalition government. On 27 August 2025, the Senate agreed to 14 OPDs in a single day.