Disclosure of inquiry and committee submission existence of "Deemed Confidential" or otherwise censored material
Dear Department of the Senate,
The standing order "A person shall not willfully publish any false or misleading report of the proceedings of the Senate or of a committee." (see https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Bus... ) is being routinely violated by your department in the censored "records of submissions" reports that deliberately omit "Deemed Confidential" submissions, including those which the government finds "embarrassing".
This misleads everyone as to the quantity and nature of submissions, thus constituting contempt as per the law.
The order also states "attempts or conspiracies to do the prohibited acts, may be treated by the Senate as contempts." and "A person shall not improperly interfere with the free exercise by the Senate or a committee of its authority, or with the free performance by a senator of the senator's duties as a senator.". Having observed live inquiry proceedings, and made contact with inquiry senators, I have discovered that "Deemed Confidential" submissions are not being read, and no senator has yet confirmed with me ever having received one.
I request, under FoI, the following documents:
1. The list of all submissions received to senate inquiries or committees which have been removed from the official list of submissions, dating back to the first occurrence of the practice of omitting "deemed confidential" submissions from the published lists of inquiry/committee submissions.
2. Documents proving that "Deemed Confidential" submissions have been provided to, and read by, all members of committees to which those submissions were made.
3. I further ask that you take steps to amend all submission list publications to restore the omitted submissions (thus making those those list publications legal and non-contemptuous) and I request a copy of the documentation you produce as a result of this request (including any orders made, and/or any legal advice received)
*. Note that I am not providing my name, to prevent you from merely disclosing the documents you can find which relate to myself. I'm looking for all of them, and I don't want you to leave any out.
Yours faithfully,
Australian Citizen
The Department of the Senate is exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests by s.68A of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, however, responses may be provided to requests for administrative information of the department.
Your request relates to committee information, which is not administrative information that is held by the department. Submissions and other information provided to, and received by a Senate committee, become committee documents and it is for the committee to decide whether to make the information publicly available - see Senate Standing Order 37. Unless there are strong reasons to withhold publication, committees ordinarily authorise the publication of submissions received. Authors of submissions are advised that they should not publish or disclose their submissions to others until the committee has authorised publication.
Committees do however, have the power to receive evidence in confidence. There are a number of reasons why committees may decide to receive evidence confidentiality, including personal privacy, active litigation or possibly adverse commercial or personal consequences. Most submissions that are received in confidence by committees are done so at the request of the submitter.
If you have made a submission to a committee that has been received in confidence, and you are seeking to have that submission become public, you can write to the committee to make this request.
Contact details for each Senate committee are available on Senate's website: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Bus...
Usher of the Black Rod / Chief Operating Officer
Black Rod’s Office | Department of the Senate
Dear Usher of the Black Rod (SEN),
Thanks for your reply, which I acknowledge you were under no obligation to supply.
I raised several important issues, all of which you chose not to respond to. You did however misunderstand my request, and responded to an imaginary issue I did not raise (relating to the publication of submissions - that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about publication of the LIST of submissions, not the submissions themselves).
The fact remains - inquiries are publishing documents purporting to be a "list of submissions" when this is blatantly misleading (because it omits many submissions).
I respectfully request, now that I've drawn your attention to this illegal and contemptuous behavior, that you take steps to rectify the past records, and prevent this practice continuing, as required by the laws outlined here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Bus...
Yours sincerely,
Australian Citizen