In 1994, the Senate agreed to a motion by Senator Brian Harradine requiring that all Australian Government departments and agencies produce an indexed list of their files every six months for tabling before parliament. The production of the list is intended to make the operations of Government more transparent to the Australian public.
As part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to give Australians greater access to relevant Government information quickly and easily, the original Senate Order was amended in 1998 and now requires departments to also list these files on their Internet websites.
The lists are tabled twice a year, once in the Spring sittings and once in the Autumn sittings.
- Spring sittings - files created in the preceding July to December
- Autumn sitting - files created in the preceding January to June