Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Of course, the interjectors from the other side bleat loudly but there is no substance in their interjections. Many a time during the last parliament, Senator Macdonald, spoke in this place in relation to unanswered questions. He said that what the minister 'has done here today is arrogance to the top degree'. That is a quote from you, Senator Macdonald, about what you think when questions have not been answered in this place. They are your words that you have iterated in here. So it seems very poor to then complain when you have complained loudly before—and those were the words you used. I will say them again. You said that what the minister 'had done here today is arrogance to the top degree'. That is your view about unanswered questions in this place—and it is my view as well.

The deadlines should be met, but this is a government that has wrapped itself in secrecy. It does not want to answer questions. It does not want to ensure that it meets its obligations. It has a complete lack of transparency. Of course, even in the areas of FOI, we have heard things from the secretary of the department like 'playing hardball on FOI'—because the government does not want to release information. This is just another example of this government being particularly arrogant and closed on providing information to the Senate.

The Abbott government still has almost 2,000 questions on notice that have been lodged by Labor concerning basic questions about its spending and its operations, and you really have to ask, 'What does this government have to hide?' I have lodged basic questions to each department and minister since the election as a means of holding the government to account. Have they met even the basic low bar that you would expect from this coalition government. No, they have not. They have not met it at all.

On behalf of the Labor opposition, I have asked the government, in this instance on social services, to explain each department's spending across a range of standards. These are things that the public ought to know—like the cost of printing, advertising, building leases cetera. This government has failed that basic test. I recognise that there might be further debate on this, and I have a few departments to go through, so I will leave it at that point and expand the debate shortly with a second one.