Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection, thank you, Senator Kroger! No. They cannot. It is absolutely gobsmacking—absolutely gobsmacking!

I would ask the minister, and perhaps there is a fantastic answer to this—perhaps there is a brilliant answer which explains everything with great clarity—about the proper due process that was in place before the $9 million was contributed to Henbury. Perhaps there is a fantastic explanation of the absolute mess that seems to have been the management of this process for over a year now. Perhaps there is a fantastic explanation for the fact that it seems the government has not required any accountability from the organisation itself. Where are we? We still do not even have a methodology. We still do not have anything that is going to show how there is going to be any benefit to the taxpayer for the investment of the $9 million.

I did note somewhere in all of this that the property was going to go back to running cattle as part of their future processes. What on earth is going on? They took the cattle off and they were going to do X, Y and Z, and that never happened. Now they are talking about putting the cattle back on. But, 'We have taken the $9 million, thank you very much!' That was a very helpful contribution to the $13 million purchase. Where is the accountability? There is no accountability.

It is about time that this government came clean with the explanation about why this has been such a flawed process, came clean with an explanation of why this has got to the situation that it has and came clean with exactly how there is going to be the sequestration on this property. There is reporting of the fact that these arid soils will not actually do what they want them to do in terms of carbon sequestration in the soil.

So this is yet another dog from this government. I cannot believe that they could just fling a $9 million-bucket of taxpayers' money to purchase a property and not require any accountability—no benchmarks. Nothing. Along the way, no milestones and no nothing; just a bucket of money that they are happy to throw out into the ether in the cause of 'better environment'. It is just ridiculous.

Governments are supposed to be accountable. They are supposed to do a good job. They are supposed to practically and properly assess policy and make sure that the Australian people have value for the taxpayer dollar that the government is using. We have seen this government in an absolute mess. They have managed to turn a $70 billion-surplus into a $120 billion-black hole—the list is endless. But this is one of those things that have just slipped under the radar. Sure, it is not a huge thing; it is not one of the top issues for people living in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and the capital cities. And perhaps they are not aware of this even across some of the regions. But it is yet another example of this government's absolute mismanagement; they simply cannot run the country, and it is about time they were accountable for the decisions that they make.

I challenge the minister to come forward and give the parliament a clear and concise explanation of exactly how that $9 million has been accounted for and what the process has been, because to date it is as clear as mud and it is becoming increasingly obvious that this government simply cannot run the country.