Senator PATTERSON —I move:

  That General Business notice of motion No. 444 standing in my name for this day, relating to an order for the production of documents by the Minister for the Arts and Administrative Services (Senator McMullan) concerning Australian Artists' Creative Fellowships, be postponed till 24 November 1993.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

  Leave granted.

Senator PATTERSON —I have a notice of motion standing in my name requiring the production of certain documents. The government has indicated that it has a problem in getting those documents together. I have had some discussion with some of my colleagues in the smaller parties—the Greens, Senator Harradine and the Democrats—and they agree with me that these documents should be available. But, so that we do not delay the Senate today, I am deferring this notice of motion and putting the government on notice that we will be requiring that documentation by close of business tomorrow evening and that that motion will be brought forward tomorrow.

  I hope that the government can give us some sort of assurance that that information will be available to us and that we will therefore not have to suspend standing orders and waste the time of the Senate. We now have given a reasonable length of time and I believe that, by the close of business tomorrow night, those documents should be available. I think that is a reasonable length of time, and I am deferring this motion to enable the government to do that.

  Question resolved in the affirmative.