Derek McDowell (Labour)

I accept that much, but I do not accept that the Government can make its decisions in an untrammelled way. The Minister is not entitled to say that the Government has no duty to explain or to say that he need not justify the changes he is making. After all, the Government acts on behalf of and in the name of the people and it has a responsibility to take that into account when ordering its business and making its decisions. The mechanisms whereby its decisions are made should be based on consensus rather than on an assertion by the Minister that the Government has won the election and will speak to us in five years.

The Minister referred to the report of the high level group and the supposed raison d'être of the Bill, namely the extension of the five-year term to ten years. I have already said, as have other Opposition Senators, that while we do not agree with that we are not hugely exercised by it. He does not acknowledge that the Bill goes a good deal further – even in this section – because it redefines in a very broad way the records disclosure of which can be prevented and the people whose deliberations are also prevented from release by redefining the whole nature of Government. He has gone well beyond what was recommended by the high level group and well beyond what he gives as being the raison d'être for the Bill. That is the reason I am pressing this amendment.

Question put: "That the words proposed to be deleted stand."

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