Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Bragg, I move:

That—

(a) the Senate notes that:

(i) Freedom of Information request no. 3379 (the request) sought briefing documents within the Financial System Division of the Department of the Treasury regarding the proposed Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) and Dixon Advisory and Superannuation Services Pty Ltd, in addition to correspondence from outside the Treasury about the eligibility of Dixon Advisory claimants under the proposed CSLR, since 21 May 2022,

(ii) certain documents were not released, or were heavily redacted, under subsections 47G(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982, in response to the request on the basis that the documents contain information about AFCA's business and financial affairs and that the release of such information could reasonably be expected to adversely and unreasonably affect AFCA's business, commercial or financial affairs,

(iii) the fact that documents contain information about an organisation's business and financial affairs, and whether disclosure of such documents would affect that organisation's business and financial interests, is not a sufficient public interest immunity ground to withhold the documents from the Senate, and

(iv) AFCA's status as the external dispute resolution (EDR) scheme that deals with financial services complaints, authorised by the responsible minister to operate the EDR scheme in accordance with the Corporations Act 2001, warrants a heightened degree of transparency, which outweighs concerns about commercial confidentiality; and

(b) there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Treasurer, by no later than midday on Thursday, 30 November 2023:

(i) 'CSLR Questions and Answers' (document no. 1) referred in the Treasury's response to Freedom of Information request no. 3379, without the redactions referred to in paragraph (a)(ii), and

(ii) 'CSLR—data' (document no. 4) and 'CSLR—data and design' (document no. 5) referred in the Treasury's response to Freedom of Information request no. 3379, that was not released in response to the request, due to the operation of subsection 47G(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act.

Question agreed to.