(a) notes that ministers and officers have
continued to refuse to provide information to Senate committees without
properly raising claims of public interest immunity as required by past resolutions
of the Senate;
(b) reaffirms the principles of past resolutions of
the Senate by this order, to provide ministers and officers with guidance as to
the proper process for raising public interest immunity claims and to
consolidate those past resolutions of the Senate;
(1) If:
(a) a Senate committee, or a senator in
the course of proceedings of a committee, requests information or a document
from a Commonwealth department or agency; and
(b) an officer of the department or agency
to whom the request is directed believes that it may not be in the public
interest to disclose the information or document to the committee,
the officer shall state to the committee
the ground on which the officer believes that it may not be in the public
interest to disclose the information or document to the committee, and specify
the harm to the public interest that could result from the disclosure of the
information or document.
(2) If, after receiving the officer’s statement under
paragraph (1), the committee or the senator requests the officer to refer the
question of the disclosure of the information or document to a responsible
minister, the officer shall refer that question to the minister.
(3) If a minister, on a reference by an officer under
paragraph (2), concludes that it would not be in the public interest to
disclose the information or document to the committee, the minister shall
provide to the committee a statement of the ground for that conclusion,
specifying the harm to the public interest that could result from the
disclosure of the information or document.
(4) A minister, in a statement under paragraph (3), shall
indicate whether the harm to the public interest that could result from the
disclosure of the information or document to the committee could result only
from the publication of the information or document by the committee, or could
result, equally or in part, from the disclosure of the information or document
to the committee as in camera evidence.
(5) If, after considering a statement by a minister provided
under paragraph (3), the committee concludes that the statement does not
sufficiently justify the withholding of the information or document from the
committee, the committee shall report the matter to the Senate.
(6) A decision by a committee not to report a matter to the
Senate under paragraph (5) does not prevent a senator from raising the
matter in the Senate in accordance with other procedures of the Senate.
(7) A statement that information or a document is not
published, or is confidential, or consists of advice to, or internal
deliberations of, government, in the absence of specification of the harm to
the public interest that could result from the disclosure of the information or
document, is not a statement that meets the requirements of paragraph (1) or
(4).
(8) If a minister concludes that a statement under paragraph
(3) should more appropriately be made by the head of an agency, by reason of
the independence of that agency from ministerial direction or control, the
minister shall inform the committee of that conclusion and the reason for that
conclusion, and shall refer the matter to the head of the agency, who shall
then be required to provide a statement in accordance with paragraph (3).
(d) requires the Procedure Committee to
review the operation of this order and report to the Senate by 20 August 2009.
