Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of Senators Carr, Xenophon, Muir, Wright, Wang and Lazarus, I move:

That the Senate—

(a) recalls its resolution of 13 May 2009, moved by Senator Cormann, setting out the process to be followed by public sector witnesses who believe that they have grounds for withholding information from Senate committees;

(b) concurs with the statement of Senator Cormann during debate on the motion, in which he said, 'At the end of the day, the final decision on whether to claim a public interest ground for not disclosing information should be made by a minister, with a statement of the ground, and ultimately only the Senate itself can determine whether the claim is accepted';

(c) acknowledges a letter tabled by Senator Cormann on 17 March 2015 in response to an order for the production of documents agreed to by the Senate on the same day, relating to the Automotive Transformation Scheme;

(d) does not recognise That the act of marking documents as 'Protected for reasons of Cabinet confidentiality' is an appropriate basis for making a claim of public interest immunity;

(e) does not accept Senator Cormann's claim of public interest immunity on the grounds that to produce the documents ordered would disclose the substance of Cabinet deliberations which would give rise to harm to the public interest; and

(f) insists that Senator Cormann table the correspondence requested in the order for production of documents agreed to by the Senate on 17 March 2015 by 3.30 pm on 12 May 2015.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The motion is not correct in its assertion that the government has withheld documents merely because of the markings on the documents. As Minister Cormann explained in his letter to you, Mr President, on 17 March 2015 the basis for the government's claim of immunity is that these documents relate to cabinet level deliberations. The government stands by that statement of fact.

Question agreed to.