Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

As part of the dialogue, that's an important part of the approach. The decisions themselves will obviously be contained in the public register as part of this process. That's formalised. That will provide a picture of arrangements that are inconsistent with foreign policy and foreign relations, and there will be a significant amount of consultation during the process between the entities and the Commonwealth government in the form of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade task force.

There are also the matters in section 51, which I alluded to yesterday, which are the matters that the minister is required to take into account. It gives some quite explicit guidance to the states and territories in relation to these matters and to the Commonwealth, frankly, in terms of what has to be taken into account by the minister.

On sensitivity, obviously decisions will be based on a range of inputs—the foreign minister's input—as is explicitly referred to in the bill, but also on classified issues, cabinet-in-confidence issues and a range of others. I do think, for the reasons that I set out yesterday and for the reasons that apply in the context of the FIRB similarly, that the way the bill has cast this, in terms of not providing reasons, is one that the government believes is appropriate.