Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Attorney-General, Minister Farrell. The government campaigned on a message of restoring trust in politics, moving away from the culture of secrecy of the coalition. Yet, as the PM conceded last year:

… this is a time when trust in governments and institutions is under challenge.

This is backed up by data. Australians' trust in government has gone down even more since the 2022 election. Data from the Mapping social cohesion report shows that, in 2024, 33 per cent of adults thought the government can be trusted to do the right thing by the Australian people all or most of the time, down from 44 per cent in 2021. I ask the following: what action is the government taking to increase the trust in the community, to increase transparency and to demonstrate it is doing the right thing for Australians and not vested interests, like gas companies.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Tyrrell for her question. You can trust us, Senator Tyrrell. We are a really trustworthy government because, if we say we're going to do something, then that is what we will do. Can I give you some examples?

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Tyrrell?

Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I trust you, Senator Farrell, but it's about the people of Australia trusting you.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is being relevant to the question.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for that confidence in me, Senator Tyrrell, but can I just give you some of the examples of what this government has done to build the trust of the Australian people? I probably should note that, at the last election, Labor significantly increased the number of representatives in the parliament, which I take as a sign that the Australian people do trust us. Why is that? Well, let me go through some of the things we have done. We've established a National Anti-Corruption Commission. We have strengthened the ministerial code of conduct. We have strengthened protections for whistleblowers. All of these things were done in the Attorney-General's portfolio.

We've increased the funding of the ANAO. For instance, one of their inquiries was into PEMS. I don't know if you recall the PEMS, but it was a system set up by the other side and completely failed to do what it was supposed to do. We restored transparency at the AAT appointments and established the ART. We reinstated a standalone privacy and FOI commissioner. We implemented the recommendations of the Bell inquiry into Morrison's multiministries. Is there anything that we haven't done to restore— (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Tyrrell, a first supplementary?

Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

These actions clearly aren't working. With a near refusal to release the jobs for mates report and then this week trying to pass a FOI bill, which is universally opposed by human rights and legal experts for eroding transparency, how is the government being more transparent than the previous lot by reintroducing FOI exemptions, by reintroducing application fees and by banning anonymous requests for FOIs?

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

(—) (): I thank Senator Tyrrell for her first supplementary question. The problem with the FOI system is that it's simply not fit for purpose anymore. You might recall one of the former senators who was in this place who ran as a candidate for the Lambie party in South Australia at the last election, Senator Rex Patrick. He has set up a business model where he goes to members of parliament and says, 'Look, if you pay me money, I can get FOI requests answered for you.' This is a complete abuse of the FOI system. We want the FOI system to work but— (Time expired)

Hon. Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Honourable senators interjecting—

Order!

Order!

Senator Henderson, I have called order about three times.

Senator Henderson, once again, you are being extremely disrespectful towards me. Senator Tyrrell, a second supplementary?

Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order, though, I have never used the transparency warrior once. As the Centre for Public Integrity states, the FOI bill would make it harder for journalists, whistleblowers and the public to hold government to account. We're facing a cost-of-living crisis with rising inflation and income tax being too high. If the government wants to help regular working people and be a more transparent government than the last, why are you making people pay to access information they have a right to? How does this help the regular working Australian and the health of our democracy?

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Tyrrell for her second supplementary question. Well, we are a government that looks after ordinary working people. I mentioned the number of seats that we won at the last federal election. One of the reasons we did so well at that election was because, unlike the opposition, we were focused on cost-of-living issues that affected ordinary Australian voters. I mean, I could list all of the things that we did but there are so many. In the 24 seconds that I have left to answer the question, I couldn't go through all of them. We could just read the Liberals' report, which has now finally been released. You talk about transparency but what about that lack of transparency? They weren't even going to tell the— (Time expired)