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

At the request of Senator Davey, I move:

That—

(a) the Senate notes that:

(i) order for the production of documents no. 318, agreed to by the Senate on 6 September 2023, relating to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and due on 14 September 2023, has not been complied with, and

(ii) a further motion (general business no. 344) requiring compliance with the order, agreed to by the Senate on 16 October 2023, and requiring compliance by midday on Tuesday, 17 October 2023, has also not been complied with;

(b) the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water be required to attend the Senate, prior to the commencement of government business on Monday, 6 November 2023, to provide an explanation of the failure to comply;

(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 other business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 5 minutes each.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

Omit "prior to the commencement of government business", substitute "at the conclusion of Question Time".

This would require the minister to appear before the chamber at the conclusion of question time, as opposed to the beginning of the day.

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

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

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

The government won't be supporting the amendment or the motion, but we appreciate Senator Davey's interest in the MDBA, and the government is working to comply with the order. Given the extremely broad parameters of the request, a considerable amount of departmental and agency resources is being expended to respond. An IT search of the department and MDBA systems identified over one million documents as being in the scope of the request. Within the department, the documents in scope number over 850,000. The standard assumption used in FOI requests is that it takes one minute to review each document. Based on this, to review each document would take one person working full time 8½ years. The department and the MDBA are working to narrow the scope of the search to identify a volume of documents that can be reasonably reviewed by officials while ensuring all documents that can be provided are provided to the Senate, given these constraints, to fulfil the intent of the order. Continuing to order these productions will not speed up this process.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the amendment, as moved by Senator Hanson-Young, be agreed to.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that general business notice of motion No. 361 standing in the name of Senator Davey, as amended, and moved by Senator Askew, be agreed to.