Jobs for Mates: the Senate strikes back over Government secrecy

The Senate punished the Government for refusing to be transparent. The Prime Minister threatens Parliament with a response to protect secrecy. former senator Rex Patrick reports.

Two terrible days; This is the length of time that Minister Penny Wong left Minister in charge of the Senate, Katy Gallagher, to deal with overseas business. Wong returns to the Senate on Monday for a question period that is 50% longer than when he left.

You could see the anger on Gallagher’s face as he stood at the Senate table to respond to Independent Senator David Pocock’s motion to increase the number of questions asked during question period from 10 to 15 (30 to 45 if additional questions are counted).

By July 23, Pocock had persuaded the Senate to issue an order for the construction of Lynelle Briggs. inspection report his interest in the Report on government board appointments centers on stopping ‘jobs for friends’; appointment of former Federal and State politicians to Government boards.

Gallagher, as Minister for the Civil Service, refused to table the document on grounds of public interest immunity. On August 25, the Senate rejected Gallagher’s claims and insisted once again that he table the review.

Yesterday the Senate stood up and imposed extra question time until the document was handed over.

The Senate is clearly disappointed that the Government has not responded to orders to produce documents, and the Senate is clearly disappointed that the question period has been extended from 1 hour to 1.5 hours until the final report on the Review of Public Sector Board Appointments Processes is tabled.💪#transparency #auspol pic.twitter.com/7yJvN5zJdj

— Rex Patrick (@MrRexPatrick) 29 October 2025

tit for taste

MWM Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles called the Prime Minister yesterday to discuss Pocock’s motion and said that he AFR It reported that the Prime Minister had threatened to demote some Coalition MPs from senior (additionally paid) positions on Parliamentary committees.

The prime minister’s focus is on the House because he has no control over the Senate. The Senate is constitutionally separate from the House and controls its own affairs.

The threat is both childish and inappropriate.

Briggs Review

The ‘Review of Public Sector Board Appointment Processes’ was commissioned in January 2023 to examine the ways in which board members are identified and recruited, how ministers are advised on the selection of board members, and to consider options for increasing the diversity of board membership.

Briggs, a former civil service commissioner, was appointed to conduct the review.

He submitted the final report to the Government on 4 August 2023.

Order for the production of documents

The order to produce documents is not a request for a favor from the Senate to provide information.

This is a legal mandate from the House of Parliament.

The authority to order the production of documents comes from Article 49 of the Constitution.

In 1998, the Supreme Court examined the House of Parliament’s power to order the production of documents after NSW Treasurer Michael Egan was expelled from the NSW Legislative Council on the Macquarie Street footpath on 2 May 1996 for failing to comply with a production order.

Egan sought relief from the NSW Supreme Court. The matter was appealed to the Court of Appeal and eventually to the Supreme Court, which upheld the Parliament’s right to request documents.

While the Parliamentary Assembly can order documents to be produced, the Government has the right to advise the Parliament that this is not in the public interest. But the Government cannot be the judge of its own case; The Parliament decides whether to accept the claim or not.

In this instance, Gallagher argued that the review should not be handed over because it was “still being considered by the Government”.

Of course, this is not a valid excuse. One of the constitutional duties of the Senate is to keep an eye on the government and to shed light on its actions—not just what it has done, but what it is currently doing.

Gallagher also put forward the idea that the document was “prepared for the Cabinet”.

However, the Cabinet Handbook, signed by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary, states that it is not appropriate to provide copies of, or access to, final or draft Cabinet documents to sources outside the government. Briggs was an outside contractor.

The government knows they are on very shaky ground. The FOI Amendment Bill aims to change the law to extend the scope of cabinet secrecy to a document “prepared by a Minister, on behalf of a Minister or by an agency”.

The explanatory note to the bill states that the purpose of this amendment is “to enable a Minister or his department to appoint an expert to prepare a recommendation or report whose primary purpose is to submit it for consideration by Cabinet”. This has not yet become law.

Albo’s dangerous expansion of Cabinet secrecy

The Government’s case was not helped by the fact that the review’s terms of reference stated that “the Final Report to the Minister for the Public Service will be published on the APS Reform Website”.

A stupid war

Nothing good will come from the Prime Minister’s threat. Albanese does not control the Senate. To go to war with him is madness, rudeness, and stupidity; Ultimately, the Senate can win by using its own powers or by slowing or stopping the passage of legislation.

All his idiot spit will do is highlight his addiction to secrecy and his arrogance in the face of the Senate’s clear constitutional authority to make scrutiny public.

The government paid Briggs $176,000 to conduct the review. Public money is being used for a public purpose and yet the Prime Minister wants to hide this from the public until the Government makes it a fait accompli.

Democracy is not at work.

The public not only has the right to know, but also the right to say.

Rex Patrick: Has the Australian Senate lost its magic?