DOCUMENTS

Senator PAYMAN (Western Australia—Australia's Voice Whip) (15:47): I move: That the Senate— (a) notes that: (i) the Minister representing the Minister for Communications has failed to comply with order for the production of documents no. 284, agreed to on 26 November 2025, relating to the constitutional validity of Part 4A of the Online Safety Act 2021, (ii) the Minister for Communications has made a claim of public interest immunity (PII) on the basis that releasing the documents sought by order for the production of documents no. 284 would prejudice the Commonwealth's position in the legal proceedings concerning the relevant provisions of the Act, and (iii) on page 662 of the 14th edition of Odgers' Australian Senate Practice, it is noted that, as regards PII claims made on the ground of prejudice to legal proceedings, '[a] case involving only questions of law before superior court judges is not likely to be influenced and therefore is unlikely to provide a basis for this ground'; (b) further notes that the Minister for Communications wrote, in a letter tabled on 27 February 2026, that 'no further information is available' in relation to the PII claim; (c) resolves to maintain its rejection of the PII claim, in the absence of any evidence that withholding the documents is in the public interest; and (d) requires the Minister representing the Minister for Communications to comply with the order by no later than 5 pm on 8 April 2026.

Question agreed to.