Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the attendance motion. There are two concerns in relation to this. One concern relates to transparency and one concern relates to the housing crisis in our country, and both are significant. My colleagues have spoken about secrecy. This Labor government is the most secretive government since the Keating administration. That is not something that you want to aspire to be. We need to call out the fact that this government continues to operate under a banner of secrecy. This would not be necessary if this government provided the information requested.

My colleagues, Senator Bragg and Senator Scarr, both referenced 25 July as the date when Senator Bragg requested this document. That was 103 days ago. This government has had 103 days to provide the document that Senator Bragg sought. Instead of handing that document over to the Senate on behalf of the Australian people—as Senator Scarr eloquently stated—this government has decided to hang onto this document and not provide it. They've decided not to provide this information. We have to ask why. Is it because the modelling they've received in relation to their five per cent deposit scheme will confirm what we all already know—that it would drive up house prices? Is it that they don't want us to know that they knew it would drive up house prices but did it anyway? Is that why? It doesn't take an economist and it doesn't take somebody from Treasury to tell you that, if you put more buyers into the market and don't increase supply-side measures, you're going to get increased demand, and increased demand increases prices. It's as simple as that. Or is it because the modelling revealed that their housing policies would do nothing to fix the very housing crisis that they created? Is that why they don't want to provide the document that was rightfully requested by this Senate?

The Senate has the right to request documents, and, when it does, the government should hand them over. We have to ask why this veil of secrecy continues. It is not just limited to OPDs; it is broader than that. I have tried a number of times in this chamber to seek a Senate inquiry into the administration of the CFMEU. This government refuses to allow it. They have blocked that. Why? If it is operating as it should, what is the problem with scrutinising that? Then there would be nothing to see, but clearly there is. No-one really knows the reasons. We can only assume what the reasons are, because this government won't tell us.

This is a failure to release a document for 103 days—over three months after the Senate agreed to its release. Let me be clear about that: the senators in this chamber agreed to that document being released, yet the government refuses to hand it over. That isn't democracy. That's not how things are meant to work. If the senators in this place have collectively agreed, by a majority, that the government should hand documents over to another senator, then that is exactly what should happen. In my view, the failure to do so is a contempt of this Senate and is a complete disregard of the people that we represent. Each senator in this place represents people in a state or territory of this country.

The other day we had some theatrics around senators on the government side not being able to ask questions for people in their state. Well, these are very serious questions that not just the people in New South Wales but people in every single state in our country want answers to, and the Albanese Labor government continues to refuse to hand those documents over. They should be ashamed.