Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is introducing a truth tax. A federal Liberal government introduced the Freedom of Information Act in 1982. Since then we have had transparency in government so that Australians can access information about themselves, governments and government programs. But the Albanese Labor government is betraying its commitment to openness and transparency by now introducing new provisions which make it harder for Australians to access information about government programs and insight into how their government is conducting itself. The Albanese government is seeking to hide information about its deliberations from the public and from journalists to minimise scrutiny. Freedom of information laws are under attack, making it harder than ever to access basic information about government documents. It will expand the range of confidential documents, shielding ministers and, of course, bureaucrats from scrutiny of information.

This is not some sort of subjective comment. The Centre for Public Integrity has found that, in the year 2011-12, 59 per cent of documents were available unredacted; now, it is just 25 per cent. This is not a change that is being introduced to try and boost transparency or information about government data or policy advice. This change is clearly about covering up government activity. And they're imposing new taxes to limit access to information, to limit the capacity of Australians to ask basic questions of their government. That's why the Albanese government is introducing a truth tax, because what they're doing is denying information to Australians. In 2022-23, more freedom of information requests were denied than granted, showing a shameful position of secrecy, and a cloud of secrecy has now descended upon the Albanese government. There is a clear pattern of deception and a pay-for-play approach to information under the Albanese government. That is why this truth tax must be defeated. It's a direct attack on the transparency and information available to the Australian people.

The truth tax that's being put forward by the Albanese government is one of the most corrosive things that we have seen in our parliamentary democracy. We have seen an active choice wherein the Labor Party is seeking to impose a new cost to limit access to information for Australians in relation to simply knowing, so that there can be proper scrutiny and accountability, what ministers who sit on government benches are doing and the information that's being provided to them as part of normal government decision-making. I understand that, when they're in government, they're sitting there and they do not want to be questioned. I understand that they do not want people to ask for basic bits of information. I understand that they do not like questions at question time. I understand that the Prime Minister likes to come into this chamber, throw his weight around and give his Castro-like responses to basic questions about the operations of the healthcare system or the aged-care system or how his government is operating. But the reality is that we live in a democracy. The parliament of the people of Australia is not the National People's Congress. The job of members of parliament—whether they are opposition members, Independents or members of minor parties, they have a right to ask questions and simply hold the government to account, just as journalists have a right to ask basic questions of government and to submit freedom of information applications so that there can be proper scrutiny of how a government is making its decisions.

But the answer, despite the promises of this government—they said they'd be the most transparent in Australian political history—is pulling the curtain of secrecy down behind them so that people cannot see deep into the heart of this government, and they're putting up cost barriers to limit the capacity of everyday Australians to see what this government is doing. Of course, big corporates will be able to afford the fees, but it will be average Australians, already struggling under the daily pressures of the rising cost of living, who will not be able to hold their government to account. This is the problem, and, of course, it sits against a backdrop of everything else this government has already done, from cutting the staff of the opposition so there can be less accountability in this chamber. We are seeing a government that is becoming increasingly drunk on their own power, because they throw out arguments about why they need to limit access to information with no substantiation and no evidence. This truth tax must be defeated.

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