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

At the request of Senator Dean Smith, I move:

(1) That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) its agreement to orders for the production of documents no. 47, on 29 July 2025, and no. 100, on 26 August 2025, requiring the tabling of the incoming government briefs prepared by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water for its incoming ministers following the 2025 federal election,

(ii) the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and the Minister for the Environment and Water provided similar responses to subsequent compliance orders on 31 October and 5 November 2025, and

(iii) that each brief has been provided with significant redactions applied on the basis of various public interest immunity claims and Appendix D of Volume 1 of each brief, relating to 'other department policy areas', has been fully redacted on the ground that the material relates to work in another minister's portfolio;

(b) accepts that, in this instance, it is appropriate for personally identifying information, such as personal phone numbers and email addresses, to be redacted;

(c) otherwise rejects the public interest immunity claims raised by the ministers for the following reasons:

(i) it is not sufficient that the subject matter of a document ordered to be tabled by the Senate may come before a future Cabinet meeting for discussion; what must be established is that disclosure of material would disclose actual deliberations of the Cabinet,

(ii) the Senate does not agree that disclosure of the material would make officials temper what they write or say in future, as this would be contrary to the concept of officials providing frank and honest advice, encapsulated in the Australian Public Service values,

(iii) there is insufficient information provided in the ministers' responses to support their claims that release of the material would prejudice relations between the Commonwealth and the states or international relations, and

(iv) it is not sufficient that material in a document simply touch on an area of shared Commonwealth and state responsibility; what must be shown is that the release of the particular material would damage relations;

(d) does not accept that there is a valid basis to withhold Appendix D of Volume 1 of each brief; and

(e) requires the Minister for the Environment and Water and the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy to each attend the Senate after the consideration of private senators' bills on Wednesday, 26 November 2025, to provide explanations of the failure to fully comply with orders nos 47 and 100, respectively, and that any senator may move to take note of the explanations; and

(2) That time limits be applied in relation to paragraph (1)(e) as follows:

(a) an explanation by a minister—5 minutes, and

(b) motion to take note debate—individual speakers, 5 minutes; overall limit, 30 minutes.

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

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

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

The government will be opposing this motion. We have provided the incoming government briefs requested by this OPD. All governments have the right to redact documents as appropriate.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that general business notice of motion No. 267, standing in the name of Senator Dean Smith, be agreed to.