Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will not be supporting this suspension of standing orders today. This is not for the reasons advanced by Senator Brandis, however. He characterises courtesy in this chamber around matters around the order for production of documents. Yet I can recall not long ago Senator Birmingham refusing to respond to a Senate order for production of documents on that occasion. I can recall countless suspensions of standing orders that have occurred following the chamber's refusal to allow a senator to take note without any notice.

Senator Brandis interjecting—

'An issue of this kind,' says Senator Brandis. Well, I'm sorry, Senator Brandis, but I also differ with your characterisation about the position with respect to legal advice—but once again you will say, 'Not on matters of this nature.' There have been countless situations where, with careful consideration, government has provided legal advice.

I would like to make it very clear that the opposition thinks the Attorney-General should comply with the Senate's order yesterday for the production of documents. This Attorney-General is a serial offender when it comes to ignoring orders of the Senate, particularly when it comes to orders for production of documents. This is a very serious matter as it deals with the eligibility of the member for New England and Deputy Prime Minister to sit in the other place and, indeed, hold the second-highest office of the land.

We will not be supporting this suspension of standing orders for a few reasons. Firstly, the time frame for compliance with the order of the Senate was midday today. And while we note that the Attorney-General has not met this deadline, it is still now only around 90 minutes past that time. We would use this opportunity to remind the Attorney-General of the seriousness of the matter that surrounds this order for the production of document and we call on him to comply with the order as a matter of urgency. Secondly, we do not respect that the government does not always release legal advice. This is a matter that needs to be considered seriously. Thus, there is some flexibility in Labor's position about the time frame. However, it is open to the Attorney to release appropriate redacted advice that meets the order of the Senate without prejudicing hearings.

We also note that the matter surrounding the Deputy Prime Minister's citizenship is shortly to be before the High Court of Australia. I do, however, foreshadow to the Attorney-General and the government in the Senate that the opposition will be watching compliance with this order very carefully. It is open to pursuing this matter in the next sitting period in this chamber. We aren't supporting Senator McKim, because in this attempt to censure Senator Wong he has only given us as much notice as he gave the opposition yesterday. It is for these reasons that the opposition will not be supporting the suspension today.