Thursday, 24 March 2022

Production of documents

West Gate Tunnel

The Clerk: I lay on the table a letter from the Attorney-General dated 23 March 2022 in response to the resolution of the Council of 17 June 2020 on the motion of Mr Davis and further to the government’s initial response of 21 July 2020 relating to the West Gate Tunnel soil.

The letter states, in summary, that as the wording of the resolution was particularly broad the government adopted a narrowed scope of the order that was consistent with the order’s purpose and the parliamentary debate relating to the order. The government has identified 135 documents within the scope of the order. A claim of executive privilege has been made over five documents in full.

I further lay on the table the 130 documents provided, together with schedules of the identified documents.

I note that a copy of the Attorney-General’s letter, the documents produced and the schedule will be available on the tabled documents database shortly. As the files are very large, publishing these may take some time.