Senator Jacqui Lambie speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House.
Senator Jacqui Lambie (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)

A Senate inquiry has backed a proposal to keep national cabinet deliberations a secret, despite signs from the crossbench that any attempt to pass such a bill will be defeated. 

A report released late last night by a Coalition-dominated Senate committee headed by Tasmanian Liberal MP Claire Chandler recommended the so-called COAG bill be passed.  

The bill would exempt national cabinet from any Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, despite a ruling in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) that found the national cabinet was not a cabinet and therefore not entitled to confidentiality. 

Labor, the Greens and Independent Senator Rex Patrick have all published dissenting reports. 

Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie told Crikey last month that she would not be supporting the bill, meaning it was unlikely to have the numbers to pass through parliament. 

The government’s own LNP Senator Gerard Rennick has also vowed to cross the floor to vote against the bill, saying he’s got “no time for secret stuff”. 

Accountability on ‘life support’

The report is the latest desperate attempt to keep national cabinet under wraps since federal court judge Richard White ruled in the AAT last month that the national cabinet was not, in fact, a cabinet, and therefore not entitled to an exemption based on cabinet confidentiality under the Freedom of Information Act.

Advocacy groups called the report symbolic of the government’s obsession with secrecy and another display of its contempt for transparency. 

“It’s disappointing that the committee has ignored all the evidence and backed the government’s plan to keep us in the dark,” said Isabelle Reinecke, the executive director of Grata Fund, which runs litigation cases in support of FOI requests. 

“The principle of open and accountable government is on life support. We need wholesale reform that protects our right to know what is being said and done in our name.”

The AAT challenge was brought on by Patrick, who called the inquiry an “arrogant and foolish endeavour”. 

“This is a bill without a friend.”