DOCUMENTS

Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (12:04): I seek leave to make a short statement. The PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute. Senator GALLAGHER: The government will not be supporting this order for the production of documents, and I would encourage Senator Whish-Wilson to think about narrowing the scope.

This motion seeks all documents, briefing notes, correspondence, ministerial briefing notes, advice, briefs and departmental assessments. There's no time period for the scope of the OPD, it's probably across a number of departments and it gives the minister five working days to comply. As I said in my remarks to the Senate yesterday, there is simply no way that the government can comply with an order that is that wide in scope and that has a timeliness of five days in order to report, and, as such, the government will not be supporting the OPD.

The PRESIDENT: The question is that general business notice of motion No. 206 standing in the name of Senator Whish-Wilson be agreed to.