Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Obviously, the coalition welcome this change, but it does come on the back of the electoral education centres issue, where the government moved to close the centres down. I just want to say a couple of things, particularly in relation to page 2 of the ministerial statement. Honestly, the nerve of the minister and the government trying to give this hotchpotch of government members any credit at all for this decision—it is complete and utter rubbish. I want to put on the record who actually was involved in this. I am talking about Senator Bernardi, Senator Birmingham, Senator Abetz, Senator Scullion and Senator Hanson-Young. They were actively involved. It had nothing to do with that ragtag of people named in the ministerial statement. Those people came in at the end of it when they realised what damage was being done. It is senators on the opposition and middle benches who actually stood up for this. They are the same people who stood up for the education offices of the Australian Electoral Commission.

Finally—because I am sure others will want to speak on this—I want to turn to page 3 of this statement. My colleagues will be fascinated to hear these words:

This is part of our broader aim of restoring trust and integrity in the use of government information through improved transparency and accountability. The Rudd Government is committed to promoting a pro-disclosure culture across government, and ensuring that Australians can realise their right to access government information.

I reckon there are a lot of people who were part of the insulation program who would like to see those words put into practice. There would be a lot of people who are wondering at this very moment why they were not told by this government what the state of play was. There will be a lot of people wondering: what is the disclosure culture of this government? It is a disclosure culture that has left a thousand people wondering whether their homes are safe. It is culture in which there is a dangerous situation for many Australians, not of their own making but due to the utter incompetence of Minister Arbib and the minister for the environment, both of whom refused to acknowledge any responsibility at all for the insulation program. This is not a pro-disclosure government. This is a government, quite frankly, that should sack at least two ministers—and, while they are at it, the minister for mates should go as well: Senator Conroy. There are a group of people responsible for saving these offices, but they are not on the Labor Party side. It is the coalition and the Greens who can take ownership of this decision.