Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

No-one disputes what you are saying. What we are interrogating is why the government is yet again indulging in a culture of secrecy. Let's now see what we have established. In relation to your last response, Minister, with all due respect, if you are referring to the Senate process of an order for the production of documents, I suggest that, perhaps, you look at the government's record in relation to providing the Senate with the information that it requires for the benefit of the Australian public. I can assure you right now that we'll put in the order for the production of documents, and do you know what we'll get back? A blank sheet of paper. That is hardly transparency.

In summary, in relation to the performance standards in this bill, we have a combined effect of these provisions that a minister may set secret non-disallowable performance benchmarks, assess an officeholder's performance against those benchmarks and terminate the officeholder on that basis, and the bad news for the Australian parliament and ultimately the Australian people is that the parliament will never ever see those standards or, alternatively, have a mechanism to review them.

Minister, can you advise the committee why the government has chosen a culture of secrecy and a handing of the ability of the parliament—normally, these are set out in legislation. In other departments, the parliament and the Australian public, and, indeed, the person affected can clearly see in legislation what those performance standards are. This bill is a fundamental deviation from that. It is indulging in a culture of secrecy—not just to the parliament, but also to the Australian people. They have no idea what is going on. On what basis did the government decide to ensure that there was a culture of secrecy in relation to these standards—not make them a legislative instrument, not make them disallowable and not make them publishable in either house of parliament?