Hon Neil Thomson questions the Minister for Electoral Affairs regarding denied access to correspondences related to the Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform, requesting the Minister to provide the documents to the Standing Committee on Procedure and Privileges for review. The Minister declines, stating no obligation and suggesting external review.

AnsweredQoN 787Legislative Council
Asked
1 September 2022
Portfolio
Electoral Affairs

QuestionView source ↗

MINISTERIAL EXPERT
COMMITTEE ON ELECTORAL REFORM — FOI REQUEST
787. Hon NEIL THOMSON to the parliamentary secretary representing the
Minister for Electoral Affairs:
I
refer to correspondence to me from the Attorney General dated 2 August 2022
concerning a freedom of information request
in the following terms, being ''Correspondence between the Office of the
Attorney General and all members of the Ministerial Expert Committee on
Electoral Reform'', noting that the Attorney General denied access to
over 20 correspondences on the basis ''the document contains
information, the release of which would infringe upon the privileges of
Parliament''.
(1) Will the
minister undertake to provide the correspondences as listed in the FOI response
to the Standing Committee on Procedure and Privileges to determine whether
those correspondences should be released to me?
(2) If not, why not?

AnswerView source ↗

I
answer on behalf of the parliamentary secretary representing the Minister for
Electoral Affairs. I thank the member for some notice of the question.
The following answer has been provided by the Minister for Electoral Affairs.
(1)–(2) The
Attorney General is under no obligation to do so. I note that the member has
the right to seek external review of any freedom of information decision.

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