Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 5162:

(1)    Schedule 1, item 2, page 5 (lines 7 to 11), omit the definition of Royal Commission record, substitute:

Royal Commission record means a record that:

             (a)    was produced by, given to or obtained by the Commission known as A Commission of Inquiry into certain Australian Companies in relation to the UN Oil-for-Food Programme; and

             (b)    is no longer required for the purposes of the Commission mentioned in paragraph (a);

Royal Commission record means a record that:

These amendments have been somewhat hastily thrown together for the Royal Commissions Amendment (Records) Bill 2006, a bill which has been hastily introduced. They are designed to quarantine this bill, which amends the Royal Commissions Act 1902, to the Cole commission. Without any sense of disrespect, I do not accept the assurance from the minister with respect to past royal commissions, because independent law enforcement agencies, as far as I can establish, would indeed be able to use this amending bill to open up the records of past royal commissions. I cannot see how a ministerial assurance would prevent the application of the law. And, if the minister in charge of this particular area of the law were to attempt to interfere with a law enforcement agency on that basis, I can see circumstances where the law enforcement agency could approach the courts to have any such decision overturned. That needs to be clarified, so what we have attempted to do is to ensure that the matter is quarantined.

I think the opposition is being unwise in this case. As I said earlier, in my second reading debate remarks, Senator Ludwig has, as the shadow minister, a reputation of being very particular and careful on legislative matters. I think we would have been better off quarantining this bill to the Cole commission and making it prospective rather than retrospective. That is the purpose of the amendments.