Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

I cannot believe that not only did the government not really in the first place want to comply with this order for the production of documents and made a public interest immunity claim but now the minister responsible has refused to even turn up and give us a statement. Not only did he do that; he didn't give the acting minister, the minister on duty, the words to read out to tell us all to go jump. This is unbelievable. It is the height of arrogance of the government, not even wanting to demonstrate to us, the Australian Senate, as it's composed here, that they take seriously this issue of transparency. They promised that they would be a transparent government that would share information and provide accountability. Well, no—none of that happening here.

As we know, the Centre for Public Integrity has said this is the most secretive government in history. Look at the pure numbers of responses to freedom-of-information requests and orders for the production of documents. This crowd over there, the Australian Labor Party—again, a government that came to office promising to be a government of transparency, of openness, of honesty and integrity—have decided that they will not comply with these orders.

On this occasion, of course, the government did eventually provide the climate risk assessmentand the National Adaptation Plan. That sounds like a pretty innocuous document, especially when this government tell us that it is a critically important area of policy and we need to ensure that Australians are well equipped to deal with the problems and issues that arise out of a changing climate as it impacts on human life in this country. Why wouldn't you equip the Australian people with the climate risk assessment and National Adaptation Plan? What was it they were seeking to hide? It's a beautifully produced glossy document, with lots of information in it; I've gone to have a look at what the government ultimately tabled. But I just find it astounding that this government (a) refused to provide a copy of this document and (b) made a public interest immunity claim—that is, that it is not in the public interest. The people in the gallery do not deserve to see this document because it is not in their interest to see it, because it might jeopardise national security or because it might cause some issue for an individual, a private citizen—none of that. This is a report that Australians both in business and in households, and land managers and government officers should be able to see—government officers in order for them to actually do their job and do what it is the government is asking them to do when it comes to a response to climate change in this country.

You only have to look at the contents of this report, now available online—again, this was something that the government was going to extreme lengths to hide: adaptation planning in Australia, with 'a vision and objectives for a well-adapted Australia', principles and guides for the actions that the Australian government is taking and 'cross-cutting enablers to strengthen effective action'. It goes through a range of areas, like primary industries, and health and social support—hardly a secret document that people shouldn't be able to see. So I do wonder why this government went to the lengths it did and why Minister Bowen decided that the Australian people should not have access to this document that underpins their capacity to make decisions around this issue and be well informed.

But this is not the only document that this minister, Minister Bowen in the other place, and this government, the Labor government—that, again, promised to be transparent, promised to be open, promised to be accountable—have been seeking to hide. Only a couple of weeks ago, at Senate estimates, the minister at the table for the portfolio of environment, climate change and energy backed in a very, very bad decision by this government to not release any incoming government brief. Of course, the foreign affairs department have released all of theirs. The finance department have released all of theirs. A number of agencies—in fact, nearly all of them—have released all of theirs. But, for some reason, this government, that minister and that agency have refused to release that one volume of incoming government briefs.

There's a pattern of secrecy and of a desire to hide from the prying eyes of the public what this government is up to when it comes to climate change and energy. This approach to transparency which is just so egregiously appalling was demonstrated today, yet again, when the minister didn't show up. There was no statement to be delivered. The poor minister on duty was left to read out something off the Notice Paper that didn't really relate to what was going on here. This government needs to open up. It needs to do what it promised. It needs to be transparent. Australians deserve no less.