Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It's the usual story: the Senate is being denied access to information necessary to conduct its oversight function. How do I know this? Well, one of the documents to which the order applies is one that I have FOI'd. It's one which the department originally said did not exist. They were then forced to admit that it did. I went through a process to get access to it—it was a lengthy process—and eventually the Information Commissioner ordered that the document be handed over. It then went to appeal in the AAT. An agreement was reached to stop wasting time, but here is the document that is being denied to the Senate. I have it in full; it has been provided to me for the purposes of—