Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

The government will oppose this motion. That is because, as has long been recognised by the Senate and as has been practised by governments of both political persuasions, we believe that the principle of cabinet confidentiality, the confidentiality of cabinet deliberations, is a very important and long-established principle under the Westminster system. It is designed to ensure that cabinet ministers can debate policies and proposals freely so that the ultimate decision that is made is the best possible decision. I hasten to add here, in relation to the report of the Religious Freedom Review Expert Panel, which has been received by the cabinet, that the government has not as yet made any decisions on the way forward. The cabinet continues with its deliberations. This is obviously a matter which is highly sensitive. It's very important for the government, in its response, to get the balance right, to get its decisions right. I think it would make it inappropriately more difficult for the government to get the balance right and to make the best possible decision in relation to this issue if the longstanding principle of cabinet confidentiality was breached in the way as is suggested in this motion. That is why I call on the Senate—and I certainly would call most respectfully on the opposition, which has acted in consistency with the principles of cabinet confidentiality under the Westminster system during its periods in government, and is likely to do so in the future—to join with the government in preserving, whether on this topic or any other topic, a very important principle: to ensure that cabinet ministers, as they deal with often very complex, sensitive and difficult issues, are in the right position to debate policy proposals and other proposals freely and, indeed, in confidence, without essentially the additional difficulty in reaching the best possible decision that would come with a premature debate in the context of no decision yet having been made. Once the government has made a decision, all of the information, quite rightly, ought to be in the public domain, but this is not yet the time, given that the cabinet has not yet made a final decision and the deliberations are ongoing.