Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It's one rule for lobbyists and another rule for the rest of us. Under Labor's proposed laws you're going to be increasingly kept in the dark about government decisions—shut out. Meanwhile they're letting cashed-up corporate lobbyists buy access to senior ministers. Under Labor's proposed changes to freedom of information, if ministers have so much as glanced at a document, you won't be able to see it, yet, if you're a billion-dollar corporation, you can sling Labor $15,000 or so and get a private meeting with a minister.

Prime Minister Albanese promised a more transparent government. Now we know what he meant: a more transparent government for corporations and lobbyists, not more transparent for the Australian public. Prime Minister Albanese's government is now less transparent than Scott Morrison's coalition government. Shameful! It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots here to work out who the government is listening to and to work out whose interests government decisions ultimately serve. I'll give you a clue: it's not the Australian public. No wonder corporations can pay no tax when you can't afford to buy a home. No wonder we give special deals to coal and gas corporations while your cost of living skyrockets.

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