National Housing Accord

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Tasmanian Senator Wendy Askew (Liberal), which means it passed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) order for the production of documents no. 563 (the order) agreed to by the Senate on 13 August 2024, requiring the tabling of reports prepared by external consultants engaged by the Commonwealth to identify planning reforms, was not complied with,

(ii) on 22 August and 9 October 2024, in response to the order, the Treasurer sought additional time to comply with the order,

(iii) on 8 November 2024, the Treasurer made a public interest immunity claim on the basis that the disclosure of the document would have the potential to cause prejudice to future consultation and harm relations between the Commonwealth and the states,

(iv) on 19 November 2024, motion no. 676 concerning compliance with the order was agreed to by the Senate, rejecting the public interest immunity claim and requiring the Minister representing the Treasurer (the minister) to comply by 5 pm on 20 November 2024, and

(v) the minister failed to comply with motion no. 676 on 20 November 2024, and has provided no explanation for this non- compliance; and

(b) requires the Minister representing the Treasurer to attend the Senate on Wednesday, 27 November 2024, at the conclusion of consideration of private senators' bills and immediately prior to government business being called on, to provide an explanation, of no more than 5 minutes, of the failure to comply with the order and motion no. 676, and that:

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

(ii) any such motion 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 5 minutes each.