Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

In respect of Minister Ayres's explanation relating to the order for the production of documents concerning the Housing Australia Future Fund, I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

The minister's explanation reveals two major problems this nation has: (1) it has a government which is engaging in maladministration when it comes to its housing programs, and (2) it has a government which is committed deeply to secrecy. This explanation is more evidence that the government will not provide the basic information that the Senate has requested through the orders for the production of documents in relation to the massive expenditure of taxpayer funds. But we should not be surprised, because this government, according to Centre for Public Integrity, has the worst record on transparency and secrecy since the Keating government by virtue of metering its compliance with orders of the Senate and by virtue of measuring its compliance with freedom-of-information requests. This week, we see the government wants to gut the freedom-of-information laws to ensure that Australians cannot get basic information about the functioning of the government that they pay for.

Malcolm Fraser was very clear when he introduced these laws that the government performs better if Australians are informed about the activities of the government. Basic transparency and accountability are not much to ask for when you are committing $10 billion of taxpayer funds which, over the last two years of operation, has built only a few houses. These orders for the production of documents—which go back to February this year—are about providing the information about the expenditure of taxpayer funds through round 1 of the Housing Australia Future Fund. Back in February we requested the information. In July we received a slew of documents—2,000 pages, many of which are blacked out. There are more blacked-out pages than there are pages with information.

The information germane to the taxpayer is who is getting the money? How much money are they receiving? I take the minister's explanation when he gives two principal points. He says, 'We can't tell you where the houses are,' and the problem with that is that the people who signed up to get access to public funds already said in their contracts that they were okay with the government disclosing the location. Do you know why? Every time you see Minister O'Neill talking about housing, she's on one of the sites, so the idea this has to be kept secret is ridiculous. It is offensive. Do you think we are all stupid?