Senator HARRADINE (3:47 PM) —by leave—I move:

Just to provide a bit of background, the documents were prepared by a committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council and by the National Health and Medical Research Council itself, which is a Commonwealth statutory body. The meeting for which these documents were prepared took place on 29 August but, as honourable senators will recall, there was a walkout at that particular meeting over health issues. As I understand it, some of the state leaders established themselves into a `leaders forum' and dealt with a number of issues, one of which was the question that was referred to in the statement of the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

With the exception of Tasmania and South Australia, the leaders decided to lift the restriction under the Research Involving Human Embryos Act on experimenting on human embryos created after April 2002. Until now the experimentation could only take place on human embryos that had been developed before that particular date. The leaders forum purported to lift that restriction and, from now on, to allow experiments to take place on human embryos created after April 2002. This is a very serious issue indeed. That decision was made on the basis of a report prepared by a committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council and another report that was prepared by the National Health and Medical Research Council itself.

I think it is entirely proper for members of parliament to be able to see the documents upon which matters have been decided. It was not a COAG meeting that decided this; it was a meeting of the states—and even then that was not unanimous. The issue is that those two documents were prepared by a federal statutory authority and, in my view, we are entitled to receive copies. The Leader of the Government in the Senate has said that there is a COAG protocol that any documents that they have will not be revealed unless it is agreed upon by the Prime Minister and each premier or chief minister of the states and territories. That is really a dangerous situation, as I see it. A protocol, as I understand it, is a code of correct conduct. I do not think it is a code of correct conduct to make it difficult to obtain papers that have been prepared for COAG.

COAG is not a statutory body. Who is accountable then? The federal government is accountable. The federal government is the only body we can appeal to. On this particular occasion, I acknowledge that the Leader of the Government in the Senate has indicated he will try to get the documents as quickly as possible—and before the beginning of the estimates committee hearings next week—so that proper examination can take place on these matters. I feel that is acceptable for this occasion; others may not.

The issue will have to be determined at some time or another. Honourable senators will realise that I have a further notice of motion coming up in a couple of weeks on the basis of the need to have accountability and transparency in matters that affect the lives of Australians in a number of ways.