Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are in a highly ironic situation where, in the absence of the minister providing an answer, I might be able to provide an answer to the question of the member for Perth. Indeed the minister’s department did commission economic modelling on the impact of the Work Choices legislation. That analysis was conducted by the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University. It was done before the detailed legislation came down but after the outline of the legislation had been provided by the Prime Minister.

That report remains a secret report. I have sought to obtain it under freedom of information legislation, and the department is using every technical and legal device to seek its retention as a secret document. So when the minister does choose to answer these questions he might clarify whether in the public interest he would be prepared to release that report. I indicate that I will continue to pursue through legal channels the obtaining of that report, because I think it would be in everyone’s interests if it were released.

I was told by the department that it contains false assumptions and that it is not a very useful report. Yet I was also told by the department that it formed part of the deliberative process. There seems to be an immediate contradiction here—that is, a report that the department has described as being not very useful did in fact form part of a deliberative process. So I certainly join with my colleague the member for Perth in seeking information on that report by the Centre of Policy Studies, and I urge the minister in the strongest possible terms to release it. Of course, if the government seeks to keep that report secret we know why: it is not happy with the analysis contained in it and it is of some embarrassment to the government.

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