Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Chairman, could you or Senator Cameron make clear which amendments Senator Cameron has batched together. The Australian Greens support the principle in the amendments that the Labor Party have brought forward that have been mysteriously omitted from the government's original bill. Senators will note that these amendments are entirely consistent with amendments we moved and successfully passed back to the other place a couple of weeks ago when we were debating Infrastructure Australia.

If provisions like these had been law before the last budget, it might have been possible to save the Commonwealth government from the expensive and embarrassing commitment of $925 million for the doomed Roe Highway extension in the southern suburbs of Perth and gargantuan budget commitments like that, particularly if they are screeching at every press conference that there is a budget emergency and that they cannot waste a cent of taxpayers' money, to these kinds of foolhardy projects that are very strongly opposed—and Senator Cameron named WestConnex and there is the east-west tunnel in Melbourne; they are right across the country. If we had these sorts of sensible provisions for transparency in place before the last budget was tabled we might have saved the government a lot of embarrassment and the taxpayer a lot of money. I am happy to support these amendments.

The CHAIRMAN: Senator Cameron, can you confirm which ones you moved.