Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Minchin, Minister for Finance and Administration. Does the minister recall defending the decision not to take the water package to cabinet at estimates on 12 February, when he said, ‘$1 billion a year, which is less than half a per cent of Commonwealth government expenditure’? Is it the position of the government that decisions costing $1 billion a year of taxpayers’ money no longer have to go to cabinet? Where is this in the cabinet handbook or, indeed, the Charter of Budget Honesty? How can the finance minister maintain financial discipline and proper management of public finances without cabinet scrutiny of programs worth $1 billion a year? Is the government’s declining accountability a demonstration of its growing arrogance in placing politics before good governance?