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

Who dared—I take the interjection. Here we go; we're back to the union tactics again. It's always about the threats. I say that it is one of the greatest outrages that the same government which won't comply with freedom of information rules, which won't produce orders of the Senate, which will not provide democratic accountability on legislation, is now crying a river of tears about the extension of question time. I'd say to the government: get used to it because you don't control this Senate and you never will.

There will be a further extension of these arrangements until such time as the government complies with the orders of the Senate, because, otherwise, what's the point of coming here? The government assumes that the Australian people are stupid—that they're going to pay for us to fly down here, waste all of this money to sit in this parliament and then not get any answers. The job of the non-government members, in particular, is to hold the executive to account, to make sure that taxpayers are getting value for money and to make sure that programs aren't maladministered. Frankly, when I was a member of the government in the Senate, I did the same thing. You can't just go along with the executive and be a rubber stamp. That's my advice through you, Deputy President, to the members of the government, particularly the backbenchers. Don't be used by the executive. You should actually represent the people who sent you here, rather than just be a plaything of the executive government and the unions.

I commend this bill to the Senate because we need more accountability in this country. We shouldn't have massive delegation of authority and parliamentary power to a minister without any checks and balances. We do not live in medieval England. We live in 2025 Australia. These godlike powers the government wants to issue itself across the board are an absolute disgrace. The Australian people would expect that we would be reviewing major decisions of government. The Australian people would expect that the parliament would have a say on how laws are made. The Australian people would expect that the people they pay to come to Canberra get to vote and have input on laws which affect them, and, right now, housing would be amongst the biggest issues in Australia. If you're an entry-level first home buyer and you want to know why house prices are going up, then you can ask this government. The answer is: because of the Home Guarantee Scheme, which was debased by this government.