Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

With regard to the statement given by the minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs, Senator Cash, I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

On 29 July, the Senate ordered Minister Dutton to provide this chamber with:

… the completed Strategic Review of the Home Affairs Portfolio as announced in the 2018-19 Budget.

The 'completed strategic review'—take note of those words. That strategic review was allocated $7 million in the budget and was designed to assist officials towards 'integrating capabilities, reducing duplication and maximising efficiencies'. It was earlier this month that we learnt that the Minister for Home Affairs had no intent of ever making that review public. And, rightly so, the Senate unanimously supported a motion on Monday to order Minister Dutton to provide us with a copy of the completed strategic review.

Tonight, the Senate and the Australian people have had that order thrown back in our faces. Despite the strategic review's final cost of nearly $5 million to the Australian taxpayer, the Senate has been given a single solitary page of information by Minister Dutton.