Tuesday, 10 September 2024

Production of documents

Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union

The Clerk: I table a letter from the Attorney-General dated 9 September 2024 in response to a resolution of the Council on 28 August 2024 on the motion of Mr Mulholland relating to government procurement contracts and project briefs related to the CFMEU or CFMMEU. The letter states that the date for production of documents does not allow sufficient time to respond and that the government will endeavour to provide a final response to the order as soon as possible.

David Davis: On a point of order, President, on the question of documents provided by the chamber, in the last sitting week the Leader of the Government tabled some documents that went back to 15 November 2023 and related to a number of energy documents. I wrote to the Leader of the Government on 5 September pointing out that there is an opportunity for the contested documents, particularly documents 13 and 14, which relate to the arrangements struck with brown coal operators, for those documents over which the government has claimed privilege and has said that they cannot provide – they have said the document created on 21 October –

The PRESIDENT: I am concerned this is not a point of order.

David Davis: It is a point of order. The Leader of the Government has not provided the documents sought to the Clerk or to the mover of the motion, as is required by standing orders. So the point of order is that they are in breach of standing orders, and I would like you to rule on that.

The PRESIDENT: I will take that into consideration and get back to you, Mr Davis.

Sarah Mansfield: On a separate point of order, President, on 15 May the Parliament passed a documents motion requesting documents that the government has signed with Elbit Systems and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. They were due on 12 June. I have raised two previous points of order highlighting that the response to this is overdue. We are yet to receive any sort of response on that documents motion.

The PRESIDENT: The minister at the table will follow that up on the minister’s behalf.