Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to talk at this point, six months into the new term of government, about the government's record on integrity and transparency. In the last term, this government talked a really big game on integrity and got off to a pretty good start by announcing the National Anti-Corruption Commission. As part of the 2022 election platform the government committed to making government more open and accountable. The NACC was good in concept, but the lack of transparency and public findings have meant that it has had limited effectiveness, and I think it's been a bit of a disappointment. Six months into this term, this government is failing on integrity. The Centre for Public Integrity has given the Albanese government a fail grade on its integrity report card due to secrecy, a failure to curb lobbyists and diminishing accountability. I want to talk about a few of those areas.

Firstly, on appointments, the Briggs report was commissioned to improve transparency and merit based processes for public sector appointments. It was given to the government in August 2023. It was not designed to be a secret report, but it has not yet been disclosed. The ALP has continued the 'jobs for mates' culture and refuses to release that report publicly.

On freedom of information, the 2021 Labor Party platform committed to strengthening FOI laws. Under this government FOI refusals have risen to 24 per cent, compared to 10 to 18 per cent under the previous government, the average time for reviews by the OAIC has ballooned from six months to 15 months and proposed changes to the FOI laws have just been reintroduced into this chamber with no warning for tomorrow, at the same time as the once-in-a-lifetime environmental laws. It almost seems like the government is trying to slip these through without attention. These reduce transparency. There are more refusal powers, there are no anonymous requests and there are fees. This is not the improvement to the FOI laws that was promised.

This government has ignored Senate orders to produce documents and failed to release some really significant critical documents, including the ONI climate report and others. To rebuild trust in our government and our politicians, we need transparency and accountability. They've failed to produce the ONI climate report. We can't make good, informed decisions about decarbonisation if the stark picture of what the alternative is is hidden. We also haven't seen a response to the Murphy report on online gambling reform. It's now 859 days since that report was tabled and 677 days since the report became overdue. This theme has continued in relation to lobbying and secrecy around the EPBC Act as well. To rebuild trust in our government, we need this transparency and accountability. It's time that this government fulfilled its promises on those fronts.

See this speech in context