Senator IAN CAMPBELL (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer)(6.26 p.m.) —The government opposes this amendment. We believe that a maximum five-year period is desirable. We stress that the bill before us talks about a `minimum reporting frequency'. So it does allow that to take place in less than five years, if required, and leaves that opportunity clearly open to us. We believe that a report every three years is unnecessary.

What we are seeking to do is to have a long-term outlook portrayed to people. It is very unlikely that, over a three-year period, that will change very much—and I think Senator Murray in his own way admitted that. He said that three years is a relatively short time, and the thinking behind this was that doing one every three years will not alter things very much. If you do it every five years, you might get a more impressive and a more telling snapshot.

This leaves it open to bring it back to three years. But we think, on balance, up to five years is the right way to go rather than forcing it to be every three years.