Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I do not have any objection to the motion being taken as formal. As a general rule, the Greens have a policy of supporting the transparency and disclosure of documents. We supported this motion in its original form when it came before the Senate. However, the government then provided an explanation as to why it did not release the documents at that time. The government said that it would compromise the intellectual property of the two consultants that were mentioned in the particular motion. I also, on behalf of the Greens, take very seriously allegations of the untoward forcing of disclosure of something that would compromise intellectual property. However, I have now taken on board the correspondence from the institutions involved and I have spoken with the solicitors at Monash University, who tell me that the confidentiality clauses that have been worked out by the Senate and the committee with the institutions involved satisfy their concerns. That is why the Greens will now be supporting the disclosure of these documents. We do support transparency and disclosure but we also respect intellectual property rights.