Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher will give a private verbal briefing before the ‘jobs for mates’ report is tabled. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Senators won’t have to endure overblown question times any longer – at least not for now.
Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher successfully offered a compromise to break the impasse over the delayed release of the so-called “jobs for mates” report that got them into the mess in the first place.
Former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs delivered her report on government appointments more than two years ago, but it has not been released or its findings made public.
Independent ACT Senator David Pocock secured enough Senate support last week (from the Opposition and the Greens) to require government ministers to answer five extra questions from non-government Senators each question time until the report is made public.
That move, along with Labor’s retaliatory tactics, led to the longest ever Senate Question Time last Thursday, which blew out to three-and-a-half hours.
The government also reportedly threatened to remove Opposition MPs from senior roles in Lower House committees, which come with salary bonuses, as retribution.
The question time shenanigans in the Upper House continued this week, but on Wednesday (4 November), Senator Gallagher offered to give the Senate’s finance and public administration committee a closed-door verbal briefing of the report.
The minister stipulated that she would still be unable to provide a copy of the report at that time.
She committed, however, to tabling it by the end of this year, citing cabinet confidentiality and deliberations for the reason it has not been released to date.
In a letter to Senate President Sue Lines, which was tabled, Senator Gallagher stated that the Cabinet still had decisions to make following those deliberations.
“The release prior to the finalisation of Cabinet processes would negatively impact those deliberations,” Senator Gallagher said in the letter.
“The Senate has been advised on several occasions that this report would be released when those deliberations are finalised.”
Senator Gallagher moved a motion to return question time to its regular format on the proviso that the government would table the report by 31 December 2025.
“I am hopeful that this offer of a briefing finds that interim step before we are in a position to release that document once Cabinet has finished considering it,” she said.
“We would expect that to be before the end of this year.”
Liberal frontbencher Jonno Duniam added an amendment that if the government didn’t keep to that promised timeline, then the Senate would resume its extra questioning of the government in question time.
His amendment also stipulated that the minister would have to explain to the Senate every morning her failure to comply until the report was tabled.
The Greens cried foul, saying it was a stitch-up deal between the two major parties.
Labor and Coalition also joined to vote against Senator Pocock’s amendment seeking to force the government to provide the report by 24 November, which is the Monday of this year’s last scheduled parliamentary sitting week.
He said the government might try to bury the report by dropping it on Christmas Eve.
And he reminded Labor about its promises of transparency in government.
“There’s a growing number of people concerned about what is promised by major parties in opposition and what is delivered in government, and I think transparency is one of the issues that cuts to the core of it,” Senator Pocock said.
“Today’s motion, I think, is a concern.”
However, while several Senators abstained from that particular vote, Senator Pocock’s amendment failed to pass.
New Year’s Eve remains the deadline for the Federal Government to release the Briggs report, and the Senate has now returned to its normal hour-long question time.
If that deadline isn’t met, Senate Question Time in 2026 might be headed for more record-breaking sessions.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
