Mark Dreyfus has renewed his attempts to gain access to George Brandis’s diary under freedom of information laws.
After the attorney general claimed that he had held several meetings with marriage equality advocates in recent weeks, his Labor shadow has requested access to a copy of Brandis’s diary for dates between 1 August 2016 and 16 September 2016 inclusive.
It comes a week after Brandis lost a landmark case against Dreyfus, when the full bench of the federal court dismissed Brandis’s appeal against an administrative appeals tribunal ruling that the Labor frontbencher ought to be granted access to the meeting schedules in Brandis’s diary.
Brandis was ordered by the federal court to pay Dreyfus’s costs – with the total cost of the case, for both sides, estimated to be $50,000 - and Dreyfus called on Brandis to rule out going to the high court to appeal the decision.
Now Dreyfus has written to the attorney general again, requesting access to his diary a second time.
He would like to see how many meetings Brandis has had in the last six weeks with groups from both sides of the marriage equality debate.
Brandis claimed on ABC radio on Wednesday that he had had many meetings with marriage equality advocates.
“I have met with many, many advocates for marriage equality and those conversations obviously, have been private conversations but I can assure you that most of the gay groups that I have met with, while the plebiscite may not be their first preference, recognise that the plebiscite is now the surest and most immediate path to this outcome,” he said.
Dreyfus’s letter said: “I request access to a copy of your Microsoft Outlook diary, in weekly format, for dates between Monday 1 August 2016 and Friday 16 September 2016 inclusive.
“My request is limited to diary entries for meetings with external stakeholders on both sides of the marriage equality debate.
“Please feel free to redact all other entries. Given the simplicity of this request, I am sure you will be able to process this request well within the maximum 30 days allowed by the Act.”
The letter has been seen by Guardian Australia.
Dreyfus recently called on Brandis to appoint a new freedom of information commissioner and information commissioner. The positions have been empty for 18 months, after the government’s failed attempts to abolish the office.
