Handling of Departmental Response to Coalition Letter

Question

Questions on notice to Mr Tony Cook PSM, Secretary, Department of Education: On 27 May 2026, Coalition Senators wrote to the Department requesting information. The Department's response was not provided to the committee secretariat before, or at the commencement of, the hearing on 4 June 2026. It was produced only after Senator Kovacic requested it directly during the hearing. When asked, you declined to state whether you had directed that the letter not be tabled unless Coalition Senators asked for it. The following questions are placed on notice. 1. On what date was the Department's response to the Coalition's letter of 27 May 2026 finalised and approved for provision? 2. On what date, and by what means, was that response first provided to the committee secretariat? 3. Was the response, in finalised form, available prior to the commencement of the hearing on 4 June 2026? If yes, for how long before the hearing had it been finalised? 4. Did you, or any officer of the Department acting at your direction or with your authorisation, decide that the response would not be provided to the committee secretariat unless Coalition Senators specifically requested it during the hearing? 5. Did you give any direction, instruction, request, or other communication - whether written or oral, and whether framed as a direction or otherwise - to any officer or staff member of the Department, to the effect that the response should not be tabled or provided unless Coalition Senators asked for it? If you contend that what occurred was not a "direction," please describe the precise nature of the communication, who gave it, to whom, and its intended effect. 6. Did the Minister for Education, the Minister for Early Childhood Education, or any person employed in or associated with either Minister's office, give you or any officer of the Department any direction, instruction, request, or suggestion, written or oral, to the effect that the response should not be tabled or provided unless Coalition Senators asked for it? 7. Did any other Minister, or any person in any other Minister's office, give any such direction, instruction, request, or suggestion? 8. Did any other person, whether within or outside the Australian Government, communicate to you or the Department any such direction, instruction, request, or suggestion? 9. Please provide all documents, including emails, text messages, file notes, briefs, and minutes, recording or referring to any decision, direction, instruction, request, or discussion concerning whether, when, or in what circumstances the Department's response to the Coalition's letter of 27 May 2026 would be provided to the committee. 10. If the Department declines to answer any of questions 1-9, or to produce any document sought, please identify the specific question or document, state the precise ground of the public interest immunity claim relied upon, and identify the Minister who has authorised that claim, consistent with the Senate's continuing order of 13 May 2009 on public interest immunity claims. 11. Will the Secretary commit to a formalised approach under which the Department's responses to Senators' requests for information are provided to the committee secretariat at, or before, the commencement of each estimates hearing, without Senators needing to request them? If so, please set out that approach. 12. If an officer of the Department is sent an email on the day of an estimates hearing, for example, to tony.cook@education.gov.au, requesting that a particular finalised response be tabled that day, will the Secretary undertake to ensure it is tabled on the day of the hearing? If not, why not?

Answer

Please see the attached PDF.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000333.pdf (opens in a new tab)