Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I reject the government’s comments on this issue. Yes, there was a large amount of consultation and yes, there was a supposedly an independent audit, but the really truly independent review showed a significant difference between what the government say the community said and in fact what the community says. The independent review has in fact released the transcripts of the meetings they have audited, which are significantly different from what the government claim was said in those meetings. That is why we want the full transcripts—so that we can actually see whether the government are selectively quoting from that consultation process, and the evidence to date strongly suggests they are. The government are basing the whole of their new welfare process supposedly on the consultation process. It is only right and fair, given the discrepancy between what the government say the community says and what the truly independent review by Melbourne university said, that they release those transcripts, on which they are basing the most fundamental change in welfare in Australia for a long time. They are basing that change on what that community supposedly said. That is why we want those transcripts, and I would have thought the opposition would have wanted those transcripts as well.