Rex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I'll move on now to a slightly different topic. One of the remedies a company can seek is an injunction on the Commonwealth to pause the activity. For example, when a preferred tenderer has been selected and the government is negotiating a contract with that preferred tenderer, if a second or a third party perhaps comes along and says, 'I wish to seek an injunction,' that could create all sorts of problems for the Commonwealth in its procurement process. The government department may actually be slowed down by injunctions from the courts. The act actually allows for a public interest certificate to be issued—in some sense, trying to make sure that that doesn't happen. I'm just trying to understand how that mechanism would work. What is considered to be in the public interest? Who determines that? How does that certificate process work?