Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Hansard source

At Senate estimates earlier this year, I asked for a breakdown of gifts from Salesforce to NDIA officials, with as many as a hundred going undisclosed, contrary to the NDIA's own finance policies. I want to start by thanking the minister for responding so quickly to the order to produce documents made in the last sitting fortnight. I also acknowledge the interference of the election, ministerial changes and the NDIA machinery-of-government change that no doubt complicated the process. However, it should not take six months, plus a warning from me that I would seek an explanation from the minister after question time, for the minister's office to finally deliver answers. And even then, with just nine minutes left of question time, they scramble to drop a flimsy, inadequate response to what was a serious and extensive line of questions. That is not good enough.

The documents tabled were quite revealing as to the scale of Salesforce's wining and dining of NDIA officials. The document referred to as confidential annexure E paints a particularly concerning picture, and it is no wonder that Salesforce requested, in a letter to a Chair of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, that the document should be kept confidential and not published. The annexure shows 23 NDIA officials accepting gifts and hospitality worth over $15,000 between 2019 and 2023. One senior executive service labour hire employee alone racked up more than $9,000 in hospitality before quietly leaving the agency.

Let's go through a few of these gifts for the benefit of the Senate and the public out there, who deserve transparency. I note that I will be referring to the total cost of the gift rather than the value per NDIA attendee, as is listed in the document. Some of the gifts are as follows: 7 June 2019, golf and lunch at Kingston Heath Golf Club, valued at $172; 18 June 2020, lunch at Cicciolina and taxi, $231; 19 January 2022, dinner at Matilda and taxi, $357; 13 December 2021, lunch at Supernormal, $494; 3 December 2020, dinner at Vue de monde and taxi, $531; 26 May 2021, dinner at Tonka, $646; and, finally, 18 January 2023, dinner at French Brasserie and taxi, $1,170. There are 111 more entries on that list, so you can imagine that the relationship between the NDIA and Salesforce during this period was quite friendly. During the same period, Salesforce's contracts with the NDIA ballooned by 500 per cent, from $27 million in April 2020 to $135 million in October 2023.

This matter has rightly been referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, so I won't ask the government to speculate on individual culpability. But what the government must confront is how they will address the culture of flouting disclosure requirements within the NDIA. They need to ensure our integrity framework is effective in not just rooting out corruption but also acting as a deterrent. In July, when the NACC chose not to name the senior Home Affairs official found to have corruptly promoted her sister's fiance, what message did that send? That you won't be held accountable even if you get caught doing the wrong thing. If findings of corruption are made, particularly against the SES official who accepted nearly two-thirds of Salesforce's gifts by value, then those names must be published. It needs to be set as an example—that, if you betray the trust of the Australian people, you will pay a heavy price, because at the end of the day it's in the name, Public Service. You're not there to play rounds of golf and you're not there to gourmandise thousand-dollar dinners; you are there to serve the Australian public. If you can't remember that, you have no place in the service of our nation.