(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.