Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well-noted, Senator Abetz—children in detention, un­accompanied minors, community detention, security clearances, the cost of maintaining detention centres and the spending of taxpay­ers money. Does the minister think and believe that these matters are not worthy of his response? Is it right and proper that there be many questions relating to this, not just from us? We have every right and entitle­ment to ask the questions; we are obliged to ask these questions and we have a respons­ibility to ask them. The minister has the responsibility to come back to the Senate and advise it of the answers in the due time. When were they due? They were due on 8 April—a five-week delay. Do you think this is just a one-off for this minister? No, as Senator Cash has well noted and highlighted before. In the October budget estimates, what happened at that time from this exact same minister? Those responses were due by 3 December. When did the answers come back to the 445 questions? As Senator Cash remembers well, they were not tabled until 10 February—a two-month delay. Is this just a one-off? No, it is not. It is very clearly a systemic problem. He is treating us with contempt. If he is treating the Senate with contempt, then he is treating the Australian people with contempt. I see Senator Carr is here and no doubt he will have an answer shortly. We will hear what he has to say. So 600 of the questions have been unanswered since February.

Is he up to speed in his portfolio? Is he across his brief? Has he lost control of our borders on behalf of the government? I hear a ringing in my ear that the answer is yes. Have there been budget blowouts in this portfolio? Yes, we have seen that just this week. Clearly, there is a problem in this portfolio area. Is it the minister?

We are all aware that the Prime Minister has said there is going to be a new wave of openness, of transparency and of freedom of information. We cannot get the information in accordance with standing orders. It is not happening. In October last year, was the annual report available on time? No, it was not. It was due on 31 October and tabled on 15 November.

As a senator for Tasmania, I have had personal experience of writing to the minister in regard to the ban on holy books—the Bible ban, as it were—which has now been overturned by the government. I wrote to him for clarification on 28 October 2010. Listen to this: I followed it up with a courtesy letter seeking clarification on 12 January. Not only that but I wrote to the Prime Minister personally in March this year to say, 'Please follow up and talk to your minister and ask for a response.' When did I get that response? I raised it in the Senate just two nights ago, on Tuesday. I said that this was not good enough and you are treating the Senate with contempt. The answer was delivered today, six months late. For this minister, it is not a one-off. This is systemic across the portfolio. He is showing disrespect; it is insulting behaviour. He is patronising the Senate and the Australian community. He is showing demeaning behaviour and disdain for the people in the Senate. If he is doing it to us, he is doing it to the Australian people. Clearly he is not across this portfolio and he has a number of responsibilities to this place. I ask that he treats not only us better but the Australian people better.