Coalition, crossbench force government to table secret manual in Parliament
A motion calls on Foreign Minister Penny Wong to explain to the Senate what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese knew about the document before it was sent to ministers and department heads.
The Coalition and crossbench have forced the Albanese government to table a manual in Parliament it sent ministers on how to sidestep Senate estimates questions.
Capital Brief revealed last month that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's office had distributed a manual of template answers to questions on notice from multiple departments. Many of the suggested responses advised referring to other departments or documents, or stating that answering the question “would be an unreasonable diversion of resources.”
A motion that was to be tabled in the Senate on Tuesday - signed by the Coalition, The Greens, One Nation and independent senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie - ordered the government to table the document by "no later than 9am on Wednesday". The government then handed over the document minutes before the motion was tabled.
The motion requires the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Penny Wong, to "attend the chamber on Wednesday immediately after the conclusion of private senators' time and prior to any other business being considered, to provide an explanation of no more than 5 minutes of whether the Prime Minister has seen the document... whether he approved the content of the document and to whom his office distributed the document".
