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

I rise to make three quick points in relation to this matter. The first is that Senator Bragg is doing his job. Senator Bragg is doing his job by asking for these orders for the production of documents and getting these orders for the production of documents passed with the majority of the Senate. As we know, in the Senate, we can only get a majority of the Senate if the crossbench supports the coalition in terms of asking for these documents. So he is doing his job.

The second point I'd like to make is that, as Senator Bragg said, he first asked for these documents under the FOI Act back in December last year. It is disingenuous to say the time limit on the order for the production of documents is too short when these documents were asked for under the FOI Act in December 2024 and were also asked for at Senate estimates. These documents have been asked for under the FOI regime. They've been asked for at Senate estimates. It was only because the document wasn't produced that the order for the production of documents was passed by the Senate. The third point I want to make is that there is a theme here. I previously raised the issue in this place in relation to the report which was made by the Centre for Public Integrity—one of our outstanding non-government organisations—which says the Labor Albanese government is 'leaning into a culture of secrecy'. That is the phrase that they use.

The Senate is doing its job asking for these documents. The Senate is doing its job by scrutinising the performance of this fund, which has billions of dollars of taxpayer funding invested into it. And the Senate should keep doing its job.