17th Jun 2020, 4:22 PM – Senate Committees - Covid-19 Select Committee - Provide information

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by ACT Senator Katy Gallagher (Labor), which means it passed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) on 8 April 2020 the Senate unanimously supported the establishment of the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 to inquire into the Government's response to the pandemic,

(ii) the Leader of the Government in the Senate told the chamber on 8 April 2020 that "we do believe there is a need for scrutiny" and that "it is very important to have in place a committee of the type that is being proposed",

(iii) the Government has refused to provide the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 with important information relevant to its inquiry including:

(A) modelling and scenario work undertaken by Treasury on the Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and

(B) the date the Chief Medical Officer first briefed Cabinet on COVID-19, and

(iv) in relation to each of the examples in paragraph (a) (iii):

(A) the Government has asserted that it cannot provide the relevant information because it pertains to Cabinet,

(B) the Government has failed to make a public interest immunity claim in relation to the information sought,

(C) in particular, no attempt has been made to identify any specific harm to the public that would result from disclosing the information, and

(D) the Committee has reiterated its requests for information and, in the case of the Treasury modelling, did not accept the Department's answer;

(b) reaffirms:

(i) the resolution of the Senate of 16 July 1975 relating to the powers of the Senate and the accountability of witnesses and requiring that any claim to withhold information from the Senate be based on an established ground,

(ii) the order of the Senate of 13 May 2009 (the 'Cormann order'), which sets out the process to be followed for witnesses, including ministers, to raise public interest immunity claims, including by stating the grounds of those claims and the harm that might be occasioned by providing the information, and

(iii) the principle that information may only be withheld following consideration by the Senate of a properly founded claim of public interest immunity, as laid out in the Cormann order and reaffirmed in orders of the Senate of 22 September 2020, 10 February 2011, 3 March 2016, 11 October 2016, and 12 September 2017; and

(c) orders the Minister representing the Treasurer and the Minister representing the Minister for Health to provide the information identified in paragraph (a) (iii) to the Senate Select Committee by 12 pm Thursday 18 June.