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

I take the interjection—maybe we are, because the people who have signed these contracts to get taxpayer funds for public housing or social and affordable housing have already said that they're okay with the locations being known. This is not protecting people. Pretty soon, you will see ministers tripping over television cords on all these sites.

Secondly, the minister's justification for why the government won't say how much money has gone to these providers is unbelievable to me. The government are going to dish out taxpayer funds to private organisations and won't say how much they are getting in availability payments. I'm afraid that is not how our system works. If the government are spending taxpayer funds, they need to say how much money is going to these organisations. I'm afraid that we don't live in a country where these things are allowed to be secret. Everyone will need to find out.

I'll say it again. The country has two massive problems in this space. There is maladministration in the program's delivery. It's been going for two years. It's only built a handful of houses. Clearly the tender processes have been a disaster. Secondly, the secrecy is intolerable. Maybe this is all part of the plan, when you're proposing to never respond properly to Senate orders and every FOI is covered up in black ink—and now you're proposing to destroy the FOI Act. Maybe that's all okay, but it's not good enough for the Australian people. They expect their government to be honest and transparent.

We will never let up. I call on the crossbench to continue to hold the government to account. They think that they have unfettered power, but that is totally unreasonable in a democracy like this, which has the Senate— (Time expired)