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

On the attendance, if I could, this is a continuation of a disturbing culture of secrecy we continue to see from the Albanese Labor government. Don't just take my word for it. The Centre for Public Integrity released a report card on the Albanese Labor government's failure to be appropriately transparent. The first point they raised in this abysmal report card of the Albanese Labor government is directly related to the document which Senator Bragg is seeking—not for himself but for the Australian people—and that is the government's failure to commit to transparency.

The Centre for Public Integrity said the government is 'leaning into a culture of secrecy'. They aren't my words. They are the words of one of the most esteemed non-government organisations in this country with respect to the performance of the Albanese Labor government in terms of responding to orders for the production of documents, responding to requests for freedom-of-information documents and being open and transparent with the Australian people. When we seek these documents and when senators from all around the chamber seek these documents, we're not seeking the documents for us. We're seeking the documents for the Australian people.

Senator Bragg has given the example of the document he sought, with respect to the government's five per cent deposit scheme, to find what advice was given to the government with respect to the impact of this scheme on house prices—an absolutely key issue in terms of implementation of this scheme. Senator Bragg asked for this document in July. We're now in November. That's extraordinary! And we have seen that all the senators in this place except for the government senators—so all of the senators on the crossbench and covering more than 50 per cent of the senators in this place—have had to take the extraordinary step of taking action to try and get the government to respond to orders for the production of documents. It shouldn't be like this.

If the Senate requires a document for its deliberations, it should be provided unless there's a really, really good reason. I listened very carefully to Senator Gallagher, Manager of Government Business in the Senate, with respect to her explanation and I did not hear a coherent, sensible reason as to why the documents could not be produced. The scheme is already in operation. As Senator Bragg said, we're already seeing the inflationary impact on prices, so what we wanted to see was the basis and the modelling that was undertaken to actually support the implementation of this policy, and the government refuses to provide it to us. In doing so they're refusing to provide it to the Australian people and, once again, they're underlying the report card that was issued by the Centre for Public Integrity that this is a government that is leaning into a culture of secrecy.