Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

The Treasurer's office received an FOI request in relation to the documents in question, and, as required under the legislation, they consulted with the party involved—in this case, Cbus. Cbus objected to the release of documents it considered to be business information, an available exemption under the FOI Act.

Consistent with this approach, the Treasurer made a claim of public interest immunity in response to a Senate order for production of the same documents on the basis of this third-party objection. The Treasurer did this in good faith to protect business information and to ensure that we can continue to undertake robust and frank stakeholder consultations which are ultimately in the public interest. These protections are in the legislation so that stakeholders can engage in consultation without fear that their business information will be compromised, and the same rules apply to all parties that engage in consultation. We want to continue to have frank and candid consultation processes in the future, and that's why we comply and did comply in this instance with the FOI Act.

Senator Bragg, through his political grandstanding, seeks to undermine these important processes, and we have released the relevant documents on—