What we know about a two-year-old report that's suddenly getting a lot of attention

The Liberals, Nationals, Greens and independents teamed up to punish Labor for withholding the review, which resulted in the longest question time in history.

It all comes down to the Briggs review, a report intended to shed light on secretive public service appointments and to ensure future roles are based on merit.

With more attention on this report than ever, here's what we know about what it could hold and why the government still has not made it public.

The Review of Public Sector Board Appointments Processes was commissioned in February 2023 by Senator Gallagher, less than a year after Labor came to power promising a government with greater transparency and integrity.

At the time, Minister Gallagher said the former Coalition government's approach to political appointments "made a mockery of the process".

"This review is all about putting an end to the jobs for mates culture that defined the previous Morrison government's public sector appointments," she said.

"Being on a government board should be about what you know, not who you know."

Lynelle Briggs, a former public service commissioner, was appointed to lead the review, which she completed and handed to Senator Gallagher in August 2023.

The review's primary focus was on clarifying the role of public sector boards and the skills required to be appointed to them.

It was also expected to examine ways to make board recruitment more transparent and investigate how ministers are advised on board member selection.

The review also looked at how diversity of board membership could be improved, including better gender, cultural, First Nations and geographic representation.

When announcing the review, Senator Gallagher referenced a series of appointments from the Morrison government that she believed were problematic.

"We know that half of the Productivity Commission's board members have a political connection to the Coalition and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal was stacked with appointments with clear Liberal Party links," her statement noted.

Labor has faced criticism for its own government appointments, including the selection of former Queensland Labor secretary Mike Kaiser to lead the Climate Change department and, more recently, naming one of the Prime Minister's former advisors as the head of National Intelligence.

The review was completed in 2023, one year into Labor's first term.

When asked whether the report would look into appointments made by Labor in its first year as well as those in the Morrison era, Minister Gallagher said the report would include advice to the government.

"The report was a point in time, and it was actually looking forward about how you go through your merit processes," she said.

"We have a merit and transparency policy for appointments to boards and committees. It's online, it's available. This was really about, are there ways to improve that?"

Amid the pressure from opposition and the marathon question time, Senator Gallagher has continually said she will release the review once the government has come to a position on it.

Senator Gallagher has reiterated that it was her choice to undertake the review and to commit to its release.

"It was work that I wanted to do, and now I have to get a response that has to be agreed through cabinet," she said.

"I have 22 other colleagues that have a right to have a view about that before we finalise the government's position and that's what we're doing, and it's actively before cabinet."

With the government yet to come to a consensus on the report's recommendations, there is still no telling when it will be made public.

But Minister Gallagher was adamant there was work under way, including multiple meetings about the review in late October.

"I myself spent about five hours on it last week, looking through responses or draft responses to recommendations," she said.