Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will not use the word rorts; I will just refer to the blowouts and the overruns that this government has been so guilty of in its four years—overruns and blowouts but not rorts that have led us to a $200 billion deficit which is going up by the day.

People out there in the electorates that we on the coalition side represent are wondering why there is no accountability or transparency. These amendments that have been put forward by the member for North Sydney seek to achieve that. The amendment seeks to remove one subsection and insert a new section, 64F, to provide greater powers of information and the ability to glean that information. The independent member for Lyne, who we have heard talk so often about letting the sunshine into this place, about the new paradigm and about openness in the budgetary process, is surely in favour of what the member for North Sydney is proposing. This amendment is important and it is in the national interest. It seeks to provide that accountability and transparency that is so desperately lacking in this government.

I cannot understand why this government would refuse to allow these amendments given the fact that we need to get information from government departments to ensure that there is accountability and transparency in everything that this place seeks to achieve so that we avoid the blowouts and the overruns—not the rorts but the blowouts and overruns—that this government has been so guilty of in its four years.

This government was left with a huge surplus which has been wasted because we have not had accountability and transparency. This amendment seeks to put in place that accountability and transparency that is so obviously lacking from this government. I urge that this amendment be put and passed so that we can get accountability and openness.

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