1.16
The Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 recommends that the Australian Government stop inappropriately using the public interest immunity claims process to withhold documents and information relevant to the committee's terms of reference.
1.17
The Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 recommends that the Australian Government comply with orders for production of documents agreed to by the Senate.
1.35
The committee recommends that the Senate adopt the following resolution.
a) That the Senate notes the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 has rejected Senator Cash's public interest immunity claim.
b) That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care in the Senate, no later than 12.00pm on 2 December 2021 answers that provide the information sought by the questions listed in Table 2.1 at Appendix 2 of the Third interim report of the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19.
c) In the event that the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care fails to table this information:
i) the Senate requires the Minister to attend the Senate at the conclusion of question time on 2 December 2021 to provide an explanation, of no more than l0 minutes, of the Minister's failure to table the information;
ii) at the conclusion of the Minister's explanation, or in the event that the Minister fails to provide an explanation, any senator may move to take note of the explanation of the failure to provide an explanation; and
iii) any motion under the above paragraph may be debated for no longer than 60 minutes and have precedence over all other business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for no longer than 10 minutes each.
1.43
The committee recommends that the Senate adopt the following resolution.
a) That the Senate notes the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 has rejected the Minister for Health's public interest immunity claim.
b) That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Health in the Senate, no later than 12.00pm on 2 December 2021 details of costs to the Australian Government associated with retooling CSL's domestic facilities for the manufacture of the AstraZeneca vaccine, as requested by Senator Rex Patrick on 28 January 2021 (Committee Hansard, 28 January 2021, p. 28).
c) In the event that the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care fails to table this document:
i) the Senate requires the Minister to attend the Senate at the conclusion of question time on 2 December 2021 to provide an explanation, of no more than l0 minutes, of the Minister's failure to table the document;
ii) at the conclusion of the Minister's explanation, or in the event that the Minister fails to provide an explanation, any senator may move to take note of the explanation of the failure to provide an explanation; and
iii) any motion under the above paragraph may be debated for no longer than 60 minutes and have precedence over all other business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for no longer than 10 minutes each.
1.57
The committee recommends that the Senate adopt the following resolution.
a) That the Senate notes the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 has rejected the Minister for Health and Aged Care's public interest immunity claim.
b) That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care in the Senate, no later than 12.00pm on 2 December 2021 documents used in the briefing on 19 April 2021 provided by the Secretary and Associate Secretary of the Department of Health to National Cabinet on domestic and international vaccine supply and changes to the Australian vaccination strategy.
c) In the event that the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care fails to table this document:
i) the Senate requires the Minister to attend the Senate at the conclusion of question time on 2 December 2021 to provide an explanation, of no more than l0 minutes, of the Minister's failure to table the document;
ii) at the conclusion of the Minister's explanation, or in the event that the Minister fails to provide an explanation, any senator may move to take note of the explanation of the failure to provide an explanation; and
iii) any motion under the above paragraph may be debated for no longer than 60 minutes and have precedence over all other business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for no longer than 10 minutes each.