Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Parliamentary Service Amendment (Freedom of Information) Bill 2013. At the outset I concur with remarks made by the government in the tabled second reading speech, and in the other place by the minister and the shadow minister. This bill amends the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 to restore the longstanding and previously understood position of three parliamentary departments: the Department of Parliamentary Services, the Department of the House of Representatives and the Department of the Senate. These three departments were historically excluded from the operation of the Freedom of Information Act.

There are longstanding justifications and reasons for this, particularly regarding the ability of members and senators to go about their respective duties and the rights and privileges of the houses to determine their own affairs. The Parliamentary Budget Office is not covered by this bill as it is already designated an agency exempt from the legislation that created it. I should add that the parliamentary departments cooperate with the spirit of the FOI act by providing access to administrative information when requested. Both DPS and the Department of the Senate also come before the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee during estimates hearings, are questioned in detail and provide information in that forum.

This bill is necessary due to the inadvertent removal of the exemption by the creation of a separate Parliamentary Service in 1999 that became apparent only last year. This became apparent to all members and senators when the parliamentary librarian was placed in a difficult position through a determination by the Information Commissioner that the assumed exemption had, for a long time, no longer applied. This placed the librarian in a conflicted position, with the Parliamentary Service Act requiring the role to be undertaken in confidence but with the FOI regime no longer guaranteeing this.

It is entirely correct that this issue be placed beyond doubt. If, at a future time, the parliament wishes to make certain aspects of the operations of parliamentary departments subject to the FOI regime then this bill preserves that possibility. The coalition supports the bill.