Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I want to respond to Senator Milne. I have no intention of responding to her political points about Mr Ferguson, as I do not think that they require a response. But in terms of the request for the name of the public servant concerned, I am not in a position to provide that and, frankly, I do not think that it would be appropriate for me to do so. There is no attempt here to withhold information from the Senate. In fact, what I have sought to do, on the advice of Minister Ferguson, is to provide information about the working notes that were provided erroneously by a public servant without authority to one organisation—and one person in that organisation. They have been described equally erroneously by Senator Milne and the Financial Review.

The motion and the statements here today seek to imply that the documents had either the approval or some form of standing either in the department or in the minister’s office. That is just not the case. The officer who produced the working notes provided them, without prior knowledge of his superiors or the minister’s office, to—I repeat—one individual in one organisation to seek their views. This hardly constitutes a circulation to the business community and certainly was not a document being circulated by the minister or the department. I do not think that it is appropriate in these circumstances to provide the name of the officer, even if I did have that information at my disposal.

Question agreed to.