Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to condemn the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport in relation to a matter affecting all Western Australians, one that can only be characterised as conduct of extraordinary delay and even more extraordinary expense to the Western Australian and Australian taxpayer. The matter at issue is a humble FOI application lodged by the enigmatic, dogmatic, tenacious and most formidable Alannah MacTiernan, my predecessor as the federal member for Perth. This was a simple FOI application that hopefully would reveal the missing link to the Perth Freight Link.

'Was it a simple application?' I hear you ask. No. it was anything but. It was lodged on 24 July 2014 and fought every step of the way by highly paid lawyers, instructed by the minister for infrastructure. It resulted in one, two, three—but, wait; there's more!—four contested applications in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal at costs that must range between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Australian taxpayer.

What has that revealed? The minister and the department folded there tent at the final moment in relation to the FOI documents which were hoped to contain a smoking gun as to why this plan was there in the first place. Here are the documents. I tell you what: there is no smoking gun in there. They simply show obfuscation, delay and cost. This is a federal government with no idea and a state Liberal government with even less. (Time expired)