Senate

Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by authority of the Attorney-General, the Honourable Nicola Roxon, MP)

Outline and financial impact statement

Outline

1. Freedom of Information Amendment (Parliamentary Budget Office) Bill ('the Bill') amends the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and Privacy Act 198 8 to provide a new FOI exemption for documents related to requests to the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

2. The PBO is established under the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 as a fourth parliamentary department. The PBO is an important new institution that will further strengthen Australia's fiscal and budget frameworks by providing non-partisan and independent information to the Parliament on the budget, fiscal policy and financial implications of proposals.

3. The functions of the PBO are to:

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prepare election policy costings upon request of authorised party representatives and Independent members of parliament;

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prepare policy costings outside of the caretaker period upon request of individual senators and members of parliament;

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prepare responses to budget-related non-policy costing requests of individual senators and members of parliament;

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initiate its own work program in anticipation of client requests, including research and analysis of the budget and fiscal policy settings; and

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provide formal contributions on request to relevant parliamentary committee inquiries.

4. The establishment of the PBO allows all parliamentary parties and Independent members to have their policies costed by the PBO. Senator and members will be able request confidential information relating to the budget. Senators and members will also be able to request confidential policy costings from the PBO outside of the caretaker period of a general election. During general elections policy costings will be made available to the public.

5. While the PBO is an exempt agency under the FOI Act, documents related to PBO requests may be held by departments and other agencies. This information may not be protected from release under the FOI Act.

6. The Bill amends the FOI Act to provide an exemption for information held by departments and agencies that relates to a confidential request to the PBO. This will ensure that the integrity of the PBO processes in these matters which are critical to the successful operation of the PBO will not be undermined.

7. The Bill amends section 25 of the FOI Act to provide that an agency is not required to give information as to the existence or non-existence of a document where it is exempt under the new exemption for documents that relate to a confidential request to the PBO.

8. The Bill also makes a consequential amendment to the Privacy Act.

8A. The Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee's (the Committee) report on the Bill recommended that the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill include a more comprehensive explanation of the application of the new exemption to documents held by departments and agencies. The Committee's report on the Bill was tabled on 19 November 2012.

8AA. Paragraphs 30A and 31A revise the Explanatory Memorandum to implement the Committee's recommendations.

Financial Impact Statement

9. The amendments in the Bill do not have any significant financial implications.