Former defence minister Linda Reynolds has been cleared of contempt allegations. 

Senator Reynolds faced the claim from the Senate’s privileges committee after she refused to provide documents relating to Australia’s $139 billion shipbuilding program via a public interest immunity claim.

She initially relied on alleged commercial sensitivity, before finally handing over heavily redacted versions of the documents. This included one document that was more heavily redacted than the copy published on the committee’s webpage.

The Senate’s economics references committee remarked that “it appears the department is misusing legitimate grounds for withholding information … that is politically embarrassing or information that on the face of it demonstrates incompetency or inefficiency”.

The matter was referred to the privileges committee last May, and the documents were finally made available in the final parliamentary sitting week of 2021.

Committee chair Labor senator Anthony Chisholm said this could be “construed as a subtle but intentional impediment to the committee’s work, particularly as it is just prior to the election period”.

Senator Reynolds has since become government services minister, but maintains it was not in the public interest for the documents to be produced.

The privileges committee subsequently found that no party should be found to have committed a contempt, but warned that a “creeping understanding” Senate orders could be ignored is emerging.