Senator FIFIELD (Victoria—Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Assistant Minister for Social Services) (16:10): I seek leave to make a short statement. The PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute. Senator FIFIELD: Some of the documents sought by Senator Ludlam are either West Australian government documents or documents not required under national environmental law. As with all projects assessed under the EPBC Act, these projects are subject to a robust and transparent assessment process. Documents relevant to matters of national environmental significance have been made public and there has been ample opportunity for Senator Ludlam or any other interested parties to provide comment. The documents relating project details are commercial-in-confidence and may prejudice Commonwealth-state relations. A 30-page summary business case for the Perth freight link was publicly released in December 2014, which details a breakdown of the benefit cost analysis results, the problems the project will resolve, the current challenges facing Western Australia and the frieght system, and the scope of the project. Senator LUDLAM: I seek leave to make a short statement. The PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute. Senator LUDLAM: I recognise that Senator Fifield is sent in here with a brief by other ministers. He is not responsible for this portfolio but for the brief that they gave you to read, Senator Fifield, that said that this process has been robust and transparent, I could have called you out for misleading the chamber. The fact is that this is the least robust and transparent project assessment framework that I have ever come across. This project is worth somewhere between $1.6 billion and 2 ½ billion dollars and it was signed off without the business case, traffic modelling, environmental impact assessment having been done, strategic impact assessment of the Perth and Peel Region being done or a benefit cost analysis. The Prime Minister just said, 'Yes this is the one that we are going to do. We are going to build this thing whether they like it or not.' And now Commonwealth bureaucrats and the state bureaucrats are left to try and come up with some kind of justification. The Perth Freight Link is a disaster. More than 30 community groups have mobilised to confront it and to stop it. We need some transparency and we need these documents to be put into the public domain. (Time expired) Question agreed to.