Australian Public Service Commission

David Pocock

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) on 25 August 2025, the Senate rejected a claim of cabinet confidentiality advanced by the Minister for the Public Service in relation to order for the production of documents no. 10 (the order), and ordered the minister to table the document, and

(ii) the minister has again failed to comply with that order by advancing the same claim of cabinet confidentiality;

(b) notes further guidance in Odgers' Australian Senate Practice that a claim that a document is a cabinet document should not be accepted if it has not been established that disclosure of the document would reveal cabinet deliberations; and

(c) requires the Minister for the Public Service to attend the Senate on Thursday, 28 August 2025 at the conclusion of question time to provide an explanation of no more than 5 minutes as to how the release of document would reveal the deliberations of the cabinet, 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 20 minutes and shall have precedence over all business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 5 minutes each.

Anthony Chisholm

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Sue Lines

Leave is granted for one minute.

Anthony Chisholm

Consistent with our position on all motions related to this request, the government will not be supporting this motion. As already noted in the Senate, the report referenced in this motion is being used to inform government decisions at a cabinet level. Actual deliberations at the Executive Council or cabinet are protected from disclosure. In this case, the report is the central document for those cabinet deliberations. It has not been previously released or published, and a decision has not been made on the deliberations. The release prior to the finalisation of cabinet processes would negatively impact those deliberations.

Senator Gallagher has personally spoken to Senator Pocock and conveyed this to be upfront about the government's reasons in opposing this motion. As Senator Gallagher said on a number of occasions, when the government has completed relevant deliberations the report will be released.

Sue Lines

The question is that general business notice of motion No. 118, standing in the name of Senator David Pocock, be agreed to.