Defence is required to prepare a report in response to Senate Order 12, known as the Harradine Report, every 6 months. The motion by Senator Harradine was agreed by the Senate on 14 November 1994.
The original Senate Order was amended in 1998 and now requires Defence to also publish the indexed list of all relevant corporate file titles with the following exclusions:
- files transferred to the National Archives of Australia
- case related files
- files related to the internal administration of Defence.
In accordance with the Order, some information in file titles have been excluded such as:
- commercially confidential information
- identifiable personal information
- security classified information.
The lists are required to be tabled twice a year, once in the Spring sitting (file titles created in the preceding January to June) and once in the Autumn sitting (file titles created in the preceding July to December).