Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise only very briefly on this matter but I do wish to make a contribution to it. The scrutiny functions that the parliament undertakes—in particular, the scrutiny functions that this Senate, as the house of review, undertakes in this parliament—are of crucial importance and something that I hold in very high regard and of great import to the functioning of the parliament and of the government and, indeed, to our entire system of government. I acknowledge the important role that individual senators play in this place in driving levels of scrutiny over government decisions and particularly important policy decisions such as those that relate to the procurement of our future defence assets.

I do note that there are also a few things that are perhaps more sensitive in terms of their content than documents that relate to the type of assets our defence forces are procuring for the future. Those sorts of assets are obviously of high degrees of sensitivity and do need careful consideration in the approaches that are taken to their scrutiny. I have been pleased to try to work with Senator Patrick, since my appointment as Leader of the Government in the Senate, in relation to some of his concerns that he has expressed about access to some of the Defence procurement documents. I acknowledge that he is genuinely seeking to scrutinise some of the information within those documents.

I do think that a significant breakthrough was made, shortly prior to this fortnight of parliamentary sittings, when the Minister for Defence, following further work with her department, offered the members of the Senate economics committee access to those documents that had been previously redacted for a number of reasons. I think it is notable that a very significant breakthrough occurred. It was a very significant step by Defence to provide access to those tender and procurement related documents for significant defence assets in naval infrastructure, to do so in an unredacted format and to be available to be questioned in confidence about those documents. I do encourage members of the Senate economics committee to engage with Defence through the process that Defence has offered in that regard, to at least do so in good faith initially. If there are dissatisfactions following that engagement, then, by all means, bring those concerns back to the government. But Defence, I think, has made a very significant step in transparency and in engagement with this chamber, in particular with senators on the Senate economics committee. I would encourage them to take that up and to use the opportunity that has been provided.