Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The only person who has been set up here is you, shadow Treasurer. You are the one who is being set up. It is bizarre. This shadow Treasurer is seeking a warrant from the head of Treasury, Ken Henry, that he actually has released all information. On the one hand, they think the report is fabulous—with community contribution, great work, a thousand pages—and on the other hand he says, ‘But are you sure you have released at all?’ When Ken Henry says that yes, he has, and that all the information, all the modelling and all the work that has gone into it is all there—and there are a lot of pages and I will get to that in a moment—the shadow Treasurer, after all of those assurances, is not satisfied. He says he wants a further guarantee—a warrant—to say that it has all been released. Then he wants to go further and say that from this day forward no one in the Treasury ought to be able to destroy any papers. Why would they be destroying any papers? Is there something you think that is contained in this report or in the production of this report that the rest of the world needs to know? What is it? What do you think is there that has not been released?

What we have done is support the independent review by the Treasury. The government does not run the Treasury. It is the same Treasury as when you were in government. Somehow they must have this bizarre thought train that goes on when they are in opposition, which they do not have when they are in government, that suddenly the public service changes. Maybe they are thinking of the way they used to run the public service. Maybe that is what he is really trying to find out. He sits back in his chair and says: ‘Hmmm. When we were in government we used to treat the public service and direct them in a particular way. Perhaps this government is doing the same thing; that is why I do not trust them.’

No, that is not the case. Whatever bizarre, strange thought patterns you have in believing that somehow there is extraneous material that exists out there and that has not been released, you are just mistaken. You are just wrong. Everything actually has been released. This is a great document. Not only has the full report—the 1,000 page document—been released, with all of the modelling, the costings and everything on the record but people in the public gallery can go and google it; go to the Treasury and download it. There will be a pile of paper so high off the ground. On top of that, 344 pages on the architecture of Australia’s tax and transfer system, a further 290-page document—the consultation paper in relation to the report—and a further 71-page report on retirement incomes have been released, along with all of the 11 conference papers as well. How much more do you need?

It would not matter, in fact, if (a) this motion were passed by this parliament and (b) everyone actually did everything. It would not matter.

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