Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

What a sordid affair this whole sports rorts scandal is for this government, and it's being made worse every day with this government's determination to cover up exactly what happened through the sports rorts. We know that this is a government, and a Prime Minister, that is totally allergic to scrutiny. Ever since he's been elected, we've had a Prime Minister who doesn't want to answer questions from the media. Every time he's asked an inconvenient question, he says: 'That's something in the bubble. That's just a bit of gossip. I'm not going to provide an answer,' thereby refusing to answer legitimate questions from the media on behalf of the Australian people.

This is something that we have seen not only from the Prime Minister but over the life of this government. We've seen it repeatedly. One of the best examples of that was the behaviour of Minister Cash through the scandal involving the leak of information about a police raid on union offices, where she and another minister, former Minister Keenan, simply refused to be interviewed by police about their role and their knowledge of what had occurred in that scandal. Whether it be the Prime Minister's answers to questions or whether it be Minister Cash's behaviour, the government just don't want to be accountable to the Australian public. They just don't want to have any scrutiny and they just don't want to follow the conventions of a democracy, which is what we live in here in Australia and what should be upheld by the people in this chamber.

We see it again now in relation to the sports rorts scandal. It's now very familiar to most people in the Australian public what went on there: the wholesale rorting of hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, simply to ensure that the government was returned at the most recent election. We saw multiple examples where sporting clubs were scored as most deserving for funding and were then rejected by the relevant minister in consultation with the Prime Minister's office, and instead money was handed to less deserving projects because they happened to be in more deserving seats according to the government's election strategy.

The way that the government are dealing with this ongoing sports rorts saga, refusing to make information available to the Senate and to the Australian people, just shows that not only are they willing to completely rort a funding program for the government's own benefit but they're prepared to cover that up. This, again, is a government that has been well known for trying to cover up all sorts of scandals. I have only been in this chamber for a relatively short time—

Senator Ruston interjecting—

Not long enough for Senator Ruston's liking—but I have already seen multiple examples of this government's determination to cover up scandals, rorts and anything else that is inconvenient to the government's agenda.

Surprisingly, we are also seeing it now from the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Cormann. Senator Cormann has been here a long time. Again, if there is one person in this chamber who wants to uphold the conventions, the traditions and the scrutiny that the Senate has always applied to the government of the day, you would think that would be the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Cormann. Senator Cormann is someone who I know prides himself on his integrity, on his respect for Senate conventions, and yet he is willing to completely trash those conventions in order to perpetrate a cover-up on behalf of the government. I've been watching Senator Cormann answer questions about this ever since we got back to parliament this year, and you can see that he is distinctly uncomfortable with the role that he is having to play in covering up the Prime Minister's office's behaviour, the behaviour of various other ministers and, it would seem, the behaviour of senior officials within the Liberal Party. You can see that Senator Cormann is uncomfortable with the role that he's playing in this cover-up, but he has no choice, it would seem, because of the lack of integrity of this government. He has no choice but to play a leading role in perpetrating that cover-up himself, and he's doing that again now in relation to these orders to produce documents.

There have been two motions for orders to produce documents that have been passed by the Senate which have included a request that the government provide to the Senate a copy of the full Gaetjens report, the report commissioned by the Prime Minister and completed by his now departmental secretary and former chief of staff, into this sports rorts scandal. To this day, not one person in Australia, apart from the Prime Minister, Mr Gaetjens himself and perhaps a few other selected government officials, knows what Mr Gaetjens had to say about this scandal. The Prime Minister has selectively quoted from that report, and he's cherry-picked the bits that suit his agenda, that suit what he wants to say to the Australian people, but you can't possibly see the entire report, according to the Prime Minister, to see what else this report contains. As I say, there have been two motions passed by the Senate with orders to produce documents. The first was moved by Senator Lambie on 5 February, and the second was moved, I think, the same day, by Senator Waters. On both occasions the government has claimed public interest immunity over the Gaetjens report on the grounds that it would reveal cabinet deliberations.

It is understood that the fact that a document has been the subject of cabinet deliberations can warrant the use of a public interest immunity on certain conditions. I must admit that I wasn't aware until today that one of the conventions that govern the use of public interest immunity claims is an order of the Senate dating back to 2009. This order has a very interesting name. The order is called the Cormann order. The Cormann order was passed in 2009 and was led by Senator Cormann, who was then in opposition, because he was trying to put some rigour around the government of the day's use of public interest immunity claims. So, when the Liberal Party was in opposition, Senator Cormann moved an order of continuing effect governing the use of public interest immunity claims. Again, you would think that if an order were named after you, you might actually have some interest in upholding it. You might have some interest in making sure that its terms are followed, if only to ensure that your integrity as an individual is upheld. Not only did Senator Cormann go to the trouble of drafting this order and having it passed by the Senate; it's actually named after him. So you would think that he would have some interest in making sure that it is now observed. Senator Cormann says he has respect for the Senate, its rules and its conventions. You would think that he would have respect for an order that's named after him. But, no, he's simply willing to trash that in an attempt to cover up this sports rorts scandal on behalf of the government.

I will quote a couple of things from the order. Firstly, it notes that ministers and officers have continued to refuse to provide information to Senate committees without properly raising claims of public interest immunity as required by past resolutions of the Senate. Senator Cormann back in 2009 thought that there was such a problem around ministers and officers of the parliament and the Public Service refusing to provide information that it required a new order governing the use of these public interest immunity claims. This order says that, if a minister concludes that it would not be in the public interest to disclose the information or document to the committee, the minister shall provide to the committee a statement on the ground for that conclusion, specifying the harm to the public interest that would result from the disclosure of the information or document.

This is not an open-slather blanket that ministers and senators can throw over things that are inconvenient to the government of the day. If ministers want to claim public interest immunity, they need to be able to provide a statement that spells out the grounds for that conclusion, specifying the harm to the public interest that could result from the disclosure of that information or document. To this day we're still waiting for Senator Cormann to do this. We're still waiting for Senator Cormann to comply with the terms of the order that is named after him and that he led the development of back in 2009. So what we're seeing is that what was good for Senator Cormann when he was in opposition is now not good enough for him in government, let alone as the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

The fact is that the claims that Senator Cormann and other members of this government have made that the reason this information can't be produced is that it has gone to cabinet are just spurious and completely untrue. We know for a fact that this document did not go to the full cabinet. In fact, there have been many reports that certain cabinet ministers have said that it never went to cabinet. All it did was go to a subcommittee of the cabinet, the governance committee. There is absolutely nothing stopping the release of this document. There is nothing in the Cormann order and there is nothing in the standing orders. The only thing stopping this document being released is this government's determination to continue waging a cover-up.