Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development (Senate)) Share this | Hansard source

Labor will support this bill. On its own, this bill would be relatively non-controversial. It implements a more accessible judicial review process to allow suppliers to challenge procurement decisions. This bill will provide suppliers with a more timely, effective, transparent and non-discriminatory review process when it comes to breaches of the Commonwealth Procurement Rules, also known as CPRs. The bill allows suppliers to ask the Federal Circuit Court to review their case instead of the Federal Court. This is likely to be cheaper, faster and more readily available in regional areas. This bill is expected to benefit Australian businesses, but the government is failing to maximise the opportunities of our $50 billion a year procurement program.

We do, however, believe that more can be done to ensure that the test is maximised and that we are supporting, most importantly, Australian jobs. We also need to fix transparency around procurement decisions and processes. We need to make sure that Australians know exactly how much money is being spent on external contractors and consultants. Labor will ensure that government spending and procurement data is collected on a central database, including contract reporting and consultancy spending, and will require agencies to keep records of subcontractors used. Future governments won't be able to hide what this government has hidden. The government should ensure that the WTO's agreement on government procurement does not further constrain the Commonwealth's ability to support Australian businesses, and that is why we will support this bill.

(Quorum formed)