Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the failure of the government to respond to this order for the production of documents. I once again commend my very good friend Senator Andrew Bragg in relation to his pursuit of these important matters on behalf of the Australian people. I also would like to associate myself with the remarks of my other very good friend Senator Jonno Duniam as well.

Let's go back to first principles. The federal government set up the Housing Australia Future Fund with $10 billion of off-budget funds. There were a number of purposes that the Housing Australia Future Fund was seeking to achieve in terms of providing more housing, in particular to vulnerable Australians. This is an extraordinarily important part of the government's response to the housing supply crisis. As the house of scrutiny, the Australian Senate has an obligation—a constitutional obligation, but also a moral obligation on behalf of the people who sent us here—to interrogate whether or not the Housing Australia Future Fund is working in the way that was intended. The documentation which Senator Bragg has sought to obtain relates to what $277 million of Australian taxpayer funds was spent on in the period between 1 April and 30 June 2025. That's what we want to know. Where did the money go? Don't the Australian people have a right to know where the money went? It's their money after all. In fact, it's borrowed money, so they're paying interest on this $277 million as well. That's what Senator Bragg is seeking to find out.

When this fund was set up, at least $500 million had to be spent every financial year. In the first three quarters of the financial year, there was $223 million spent, which raised the obvious question as to where the additional $277 million was spent. You had to spend $500 million, but you only spent $223 million, so what happened to the other $277 million? An obvious question. A very, very obvious question to ask. Senator Bragg was seeking the documentation to assist in answering that question. That order for the production of documents was passed by the Senate. It was passed by a majority of the senators in this place and therefore endorsed by a majority of the Australian people. Their representatives in this place wanted to see those documents. That's our job. Now we hear the Australian government is not going to provide that documentation. It refuses to provide that documentation. Why? I haven't heard any cogent reason as to why. In the absence of providing those documents, apart from disregarding the reasonable requirement of the Senate, what they are doing is enabling a vacuum to occur. We are all left to speculate as to what happened to the $277 million, because they won't provide us with any of the documentation to give us an answer. That is the situation we are in.

This would be bad enough on its own, but when you place it in the context of the government's continuing failure to respond appropriately to orders for the production of documents and FOI requests, it gets even worse. I want to quote from the Centre for Public Integrity.

These are the words of Dr Catherine Williams—not the words of a politician but the words of a senior member of the Centre for Public Integrity, who is out there advocating every single day on behalf of the Australian people for greater public integrity in our institutions. This is what Dr Catherine Williams says:

The Senate is being blocked from fulfilling its constitutional role of holding the government to account. This trend is dangerous for democracy.

Why won't you answer the order for the production of documents requested by the Australian Senate? If this place, this Senate, is to discharge its obligation as a house of review, a house of scrutiny, we have a right to documents of this nature.