Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wasn't going to talk about this but I can't resist the opportunity. This time last week I was actually having lunch in Ayr, which is Senator Macdonald's home town. I met with the local journos and members of the community, and do you know what the sad part was? Not one person said they were going to miss Senator Macdonald. They didn't even mention him. It is a very sad way for him to exit. The fact that his contribution today was just an attack on Senator Keneally and others, rather than defending the decision of this government, speaks volumes for this decision that they have made to give almost half a billion dollars to this foundation.

The questions today from Labor, from Senator Keneally and Senator Ketter, go to the heart of the government's problem on this issue. The inept justifications are laid bare. The lack of due diligence is evident. It is clear evidence of a government on the run. They are making up justifications as they go, with zero substance behind them.

At that fateful meeting on 9 April, the Prime Minister, the Minister for the Environment and Energy and the chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation met. It was a cosy little gathering, if ever I have seen one, where the Prime Minister said, 'We're going to give you $444 million.' The response from the foundation is priceless, and it's one of key phrases that captured the attention of Australians. The foundation declared, 'This is like winning lotto'. That was a key point where Australians thought: 'Hang on a sec, this foundation described it as winning lotto. That shows you there was a lack of due diligence on the government's part.' It also shows you that this foundation was not up to it. They had six full-time staff. They clearly were not ready.

The questions that we had today proved the government's lack of due diligence and lack of effort to ensure that this foundation was up to the task. We know that before they handed over the $444 million there was no tender process, no application and no due diligence. The foundation described it as 'like winning lotto', a phrase that has made an impact with the Australian people.

The substance of the questions today go to a key government claim that they have been making repeatedly: that the Great Barrier Reef Foundation will leverage this $444 million for private donations. Yet they can't tell us how much the organisation has raised from private sources. If they had done due diligence, they would have an answer to that question. But, as Senator Keneally said in her question, Minister Frydenberg has used five different figures. First it was over $90 million, then it was around $80 million, then he said $65 million, then he said more than $60 million and then he said tens of millions of dollars. We know their own website said it was $57 million. The fact that the government had not done their due diligence on this key claim has been laid bare. The substance that they are trying to mount around this being a government decision that stands shows you the lack of effort that they have put in.

Then we had the second question from Senator Ketter, which further ripped apart the government's claim about the foundation's ability to leverage this donation. That is the fact that they have engaged a consultant to write their co-financing plan. If they were so good at raising money from private and corporate sources, they wouldn't need to engage a consultant. If they were so successful over their 20 years of life, they wouldn't need a consultant to do it for them. But the fact that they have had to go and do that just shows you that that key plank, which the government have been using to argue the substance of why this has happened, does not stand up.

The other part of this—which is also important—that has come out through the questioning of the Senate committee is that the government handed over this money, all $444 million, without getting a commitment from the foundation about how much money they were going to be able to raise. So they've got $444 million in the bank, but they have not said what they are going to raise from private and corporate interests. If that was a key plank of why the government was giving this mob the money, surely the government would say, 'This is what we expect from you.' But, no: they handed over the money and now they are scrambling behind the scenes to look like they went through some sort of due diligence process to justify the decision. They clearly haven't done it. We know there was no tender, we know there was no application, we know the foundation described this as winning lotto, and we know the Australian people are on to them. This is what is coming their way. The sooner the government realise and accept responsibility for what they have done and hand this money back, the better. The Australian people have no confidence in the foundation, and that is the fault of this government.