Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

In the northern suburbs it's Holdens—GMH, right? Every person knows that Joe Hockey stood up on the floor of the parliament and goaded them to leave. People were watching, including management, and they were astounded. I remember one of them, confidentially—I won't give the name—saying to me: 'We have never seen something like this. We have been goaded to leave by the Treasurer of Australia.' And then they did. So every South Australian knows, every worker and every family who has suffered as a consequence of that decision knows that it was the coalition and a coalition Treasurer who not only turned their backs on the industry, but, out of some ideological big he-man bent, stood on the floor of the parliament and goaded them to leave, and we will never forget it. We will never forget it. We will never forget it.

An honourable senator interjecting—

Thank you for that. After all that, I move opposition amendment on sheet No. 1112 circulated in my name:

(1) Page 66 (after line 19), after Division 4, insert:

Division 4A—Annual report

53A Annual report

(1) The Minister must cause to be prepared, as soon as practicable after the end of each calendar year, an annual report on the exercise of the Minister's decision-making powers under this Act during the year.

(2) Without limiting subsection (1), the report must include the following:

(a) statistical information about the decisions made by the Minister under the Act during the year, including the total number of decisions, the total number of decisions in each class of decision, and the outcomes of the decisions;

(b) a summary of the details of each of the decisions made by the Minister under the Act during the year;

(c) an outline of the engagement that has occurred during the year with entities covered by the Act to articulate and explain to those entities Australia's foreign policy and how they should engage with foreign entities in Australia's national interest.

(3) A copy of the report must be given to the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives, but it is the duty of the Leader of the Opposition to treat as secret any part of the report that is not tabled in a House of the Parliament.

(4) The Minister must cause a copy of the report to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 15 sitting days of that House after the end of the year to which the report relates.

(5) However, before tabling the report the Minister may make such redactions to the report as the Minister considers necessary in order to avoid prejudice to security, the defence of Australia, Australia's relations with other countries, law enforcement operations or the privacy of individuals.

This is an amendment that requires the minister to provide an annual report to the Senate on the exercise of their decision-making power under the proposed act after each calendar year. It really goes to the point Senator Paterson made about accountability. It also prescribes the minimum contents of such reports, given we've seen reports provided by this government which avoid certain delicate topics that are actually important, such as the aged-care annual report and response to the royal commission report. In order to avoid the risk of vague and unhelpful reports, it requires statistical information about decisions and results, and the details of each decision. It's consistent with the recommendations of my colleagues on the Senate committee. It also requires an outline of the engagement that has occurred during the year with entities covered by the proposed act to articulate and explain those amendments to those entities, Australia's foreign policy and how they should engage with foreign entities in Australia's national interest.

We are conscious, being a responsible opposition, that some information may need to be redacted from tabled reports. The minister would be obliged to prepare two reports, a classified report and an unclassified report. The amendment requires the minister to table the unclassified report, but to give a copy of the classified report to the Leader of the Opposition, which they are under duty to keep secret. I would underline that this is precisely the same sort of arrangement which applies to intelligence agency reports—for example, under the ASIO legislation—which enables these classified reports to be filed to the Leader of the Opposition. It is important, obviously, to ensure that these sorts of issues are not weaponised or politicised in any way, and to ensure the bipartisanship on these sorts of national security matters is provided on the basis of reasonable shared information. Conscious of the national security matters inherent in the decision-making under the bill, the amendment provides that, before tabling the report, the minister may make redactions, as she or he considers necessary, in order to avoid prejudice to security, the defence of Australia, Australia's relations with other countries, law enforcement operations or the privacy of individuals.

There are two aspects to this amendment. We're dealing with the first, which is the amendment to the bill, which requires the minister to provide an annual report to the Senate. When we move the report of the Committee of the Whole, when the minister does that, there is a motion for a continuing order, which requires these reports to be referred to Senator Abetz's committee, the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, so that the authority for the committee examining the reports is pursuant to Senate order rather than the bill. I would have preferred the latter, but I am doing what the Clerk told me was the right thing to do. If this amendment is successful, we'll then move that amendment subsequently. We're conscious of the sensitivity required in the handling of national security matters, and we have taken that into account in relation to the drafting of both amendments.