Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 134, standing in the name of Senator Minchin, to provide the government with more time to comply with the return to order.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That—

(a)   the Senate notes that:

(i)   the response from the Minister from Defence, the Honourable Joel Fitzgibbon MP, of 16 June 2008 to a Senate order for production of documents advised that ‘the documents in question are “Restricted” and “Commercial in Confidence” and as such I will not be making them available to the Special Minister of State for tabling in the Senate’, and

(ii)   the procedural order of continuing effect relating to accountability provides that ‘The Senate…shall not entertain any claim to withhold information…on the grounds that it is commercial-in-confidence, unless the claim is … accompanied by a statement setting out the basis for the claim, including a statement of any commercial harm that may result from the disclosure of the information’; and

(b)   there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Defence, no later than 3.30 pm on Thursday, 26 June 2008, a statement of the commercial harm that would result from the disclosure of the commercial-in-confidence information in the red folder relating to defence procurement projects.

Question agreed to.