Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Hume, I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) order for production of documents no. 123 was agreed by the Senate on 7 February 2023, requiring the Minister for Finance to table documents relating to the current Budget Process Operational Rules (BPORs),

(ii) the Minister for Finance provided a letter of response on 8 February 2023, raising a claim of public interest immunity and stating that the Government would consider further requests for the rules once the Budget is delivered,

(iii) the claim of public interest immunity was rejected by the Senate on 8 February 2023;

(iv) the Minister for Finance provided evidence to the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee that the BPORs she previously provided in response to order for production of documents no. 87 were functioning as the relevant BPORs at the time they were tabled, and

(v) it has only taken one budget cycle for the Minister for Finance to fail to live up to the standard of transparency that she herself set just last year;

(b) requires the Minister for Finance to attend the chamber at 12.15 pm on Thursday, 9 March 2023, to provide an explanation, of no more than 10 minutes, of the failure to comply with the order, and to provide the documents sought under order for production of documents no. 123;

(c) any senator may move to take note of the explanation required by paragraph (b); and

(d) any motion under paragraph (c) may be debated for no longer than 30 minutes, shall have precedence over all business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 10 minutes each.

Question agreed to.