Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, this is not a draft document. These are the Commonwealth procurement rules which will come into effect as of 1 March 2017, which I said earlier. As Senator Xenophon rightly indicated, I will formally give effect to them through a non-disallowable instrument. That is a commitment that the government has made. It is a decision the government has made. It is something of course that comes within my direct responsibility as the Minister for Finance. I just say right up-front that, when Senator Carr refers to this document as a draft set of guidelines, that is not accurate. These are the Commonwealth procurement rules which come into effect on 1 March 2017, and the government will give effect to them formally through the relevant legislative instruments as a non-disallowable instrument.

In relation to the question about the $4 million amount—I actually referred to 10.30 quite explicitly. I am happy to read it out for Senator Carr. It does indeed say:

In addition to the considerations at paragraph 4.4, for procurements above $4 million, Commonwealth officials are required to consider the economic benefit of the procurement to the Australian economy.

That is the threshold that Senator Xenophon and I agreed, because the judgement was made that it was appropriate for this to be applied to appropriately material procurements because there is an additional effort involved, and that threshold is there, transparently disclosed, in the new Commonwealth procurement rules, which come into effect on 1 March 2017.