Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

You're right, Senator McAllister. I think we've actually gone backwards. I think we should have gone with Minister Cormann's preference for Prime Minister. Minister Dutton could not have done a worse job on this issue than the Prime Minister has done. There is still time. There are three days before the Wentworth by-election. There are three days to release this document. The government has to stop hiding behind public interest immunity claims. They have to stop trying to put their political interests ahead of the interests of the Australian people and their right to know and see this document and their right to debate this issue in a sensible, mature way. The reality is, if they don't release the document, there are obviously people in the government who are going to continue to leak this report; we're going to see it drip-fed through the newspapers. That's not the way for a government to run. It's a dysfunctional government. We've seen how this story ends before. The Labor Party have seen how this story ends, and it doesn't end well for the government.

I think the government has to stop hiding behind public interest immunity claims. There is a duty here to the Australian people but, more importantly, there's a duty to the Senate. The Senate has made its determination. The Senate has determined that this report should be released. It's now time for the government to respect the decision of the Senate and to release the report.