5th Sep 2023, 4:04 PM – Senate Documents - National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) - Order for the Production of Documents

The majority voted in favour of the motion below, which means it succeeded.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) on 11 May 2023, the Senate ordered the Minister representing the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme to table the NDIS Financial Sustainability Framework (order 229), and the Government's response advised that while National Cabinet had agreed to develop a framework, the document did not yet exist,

(ii) on 19 June 2023, the Senate again ordered that the NDIS Financial Sustainability Framework be tabled, by the Minister Representing the Treasurer (order 253), and the Government's response advised that on 28 April 2023 National Cabinet committed to the framework, and made a public interest immunity (PII) claim over the document prepared for that meeting, asserting that its release would be detrimental to relations between the Commonwealth and the states and territories,

(iii) on 22 June 2023, the Senate rejected the PII claim and ordered the Minister representing the Treasurer to comply with the order, and in response the Government again refused to comply, maintaining its PII claim, and

(iv) on 28 August 2023, an Australian media outlet confirmed that their freedom of information request for financial information related to the NDIS Financial Sustainability Framework was rejected by the Department of Social Services, the Treasury and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet;

(b) reiterates its rejection of the PII claim made by the Minister representing the Treasurer, noting that the public interest in disclosing the document outweighs any potential prejudice to relations between the Commonwealth and the states and territories; and

(c) orders that the Minister representing the Treasurer attend the Senate following the conclusion of motions to take note of answers on 6 September 2023 to provide an explanation of the failure to comply with orders 229 and 253, and the order of 22 June 2023, and:

(i) any senator may move to take note of the explanation, and

(ii) any such motion may be debated for no longer than 30 minutes, shall have precedence over all other business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 5 minutes each.