Question On Notice No. 1806 asked in the Legislative Council on 5 December 2018 by Hon Martin Aldridge
Question Directed to the: Minister for Ports
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Question
I refer to Legislative Council question on notice No. 1699, in relation to the Harriet Point Agreement and Minister Saffioti's non-answer to several parts of the question, and I ask:
(a) is the agreement consistent with s.81 of the Financial Management Act 2006 with respect to the provision of information to Parliament;
(b) has Minister Saffioti, in her former role as Minister responsible for ports, or the Pilbara Ports Authority ever sought agreement from BHP to provide the agreement to Parliament;
(c) if yes to (b), on what date was such a request made, to whom was the request made and by whom, and what was the answer received; and
(d) are there any other agreements executed by the Pilbara Ports Authority that are confidential?
Answered on 13 March 2019
a. The agreement does not prevent me from providing Parliament with information concerning the conduct of the Pilbara Ports Authority (PPA), but the terms of the agreement do somewhat inhibit my ability to do so insofar as I must exercise statutory powers in order to provide the information.
b. I am advised that PPA has not sought agreement from BHP to remove the confidentiality requirements in the agreement.
c. Not applicable.
d. In accordance with standard commercial practice (and consistent with PPA’s statutory duty to act on commercial principles), many of the commercial agreements executed by PPA contain confidentiality regimes to maintain the confidentiality of the parties’ confidential or commercially sensitive information. The form of these confidentiality regimes reflect the nature of the confidential information and the negotiations between the parties.