Senate debates

Monday, 10 September 2012

Questions on Notice

Fair Work Act (Question No. 1988)

Photo of Eric AbetzEric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, upon notice, on 6 August 2012:

With reference to the review of the Fair Work Act 2009:

(1) Was the report that was publicly released, released in the same form as provided to the Minister’s office; if not, why not.

(2) On what date and time was the final report: (a) first provided to the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR); and (b) cleared by the OBPR.

(3) On what date and time was the final report first provided to the Minister or the Minister’s office.

(4) Was a draft report circulated to any person outside the Review Panel or secretariat; if so: (a) to whom and, in each case, the date and time it was provided to each person; and (b) the reason each person received the report

Photo of Joe LudwigJoe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | | Hansard source

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations has provided the following answer to the honourable senator’s question:

(1) The final version of the report published on 2 August 2012 was not altered from that provided to me on 15 June 2012.

(2) The final version of the report was presented to the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) for final assessment on Thursday 14 June 2012 via email at 10.07 am. The OBPR advised my Department that report met their requirements for a PIR on Friday 17 June 2012 via email at 10.03 am. There were ongoing discussions with OBPR throughout the development of the report to ensure that is would meet the Government’s best practice regulation requirements.

(3) The final report was first provided to the Minister’s office in electronic format on Friday 15 June 2012 at 1.33 pm. Hard copies of the report were forwarded to the Minister’s office later that afternoon.

(4) Drafts of the report were circulated to several officers from my Department during the drafting of the report for fact checking and/or technical advice. Several drafts of the report were also provided to the OBPR during the final six weeks of the review.

The draft report was also provided to my Department’s communications area to prepare for printing, and to an external editor for copy editing prior to being finalised.