Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I, and on behalf of Senator Waters, Senator Babet, Senator Hanson and Senator Roberts, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the Coalition, with the full support of all non-Government senators, has forced the hand of the Labor Government to table a copy of the secret manual distributed by the Prime Minister's Office to departments instructing them how to avoid answering questions from the Senate, and

(ii) the manual requires urgent scrutiny, explanation and correction from the Prime Minister;

(b) requires the Minister representing the Prime Minister to attend the chamber on Thursday, 16 May 2024, immediately after the conclusion of private senators' time and prior to any other business being considered, to provide an explanation of no more than 5 minutes of whether the Prime Minister has seen the document tabled by the Government on Tuesday, 14 May 2024, whether other versions of the document exist, whether he approved the content of the document, to whom his office distributed the document, whether any revisions to the document have been made and if further advice has been provided to departments following the publication of the article; and that:

(i) any senator may move a motion to take note of the explanation, and

(ii) any such motion may be debated for no longer than 60 minutes, shall have precedence over all business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 5 minutes each.