Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Foreign Investment Review Board made recommendations that the Treasurer ticked off on—nobody else other than the Treasurer can tick off on them—and those approved proposals amounted to a total of $163 billion, including $16.6 billion alone for the areas of manufacturing, gas and electricity. And believe me, the senator opposite might be upset about a little light being shone on a lack of transparency by this government, but Australians are interested in manufacturing. They are very interested in chains of delivery. They are very interested in the price of gas. They are very interested in national security around gas and electricity. This government has failed to be transparent about what it is doing. And that is absolutely relevant to the debate here this morning.

A government senator interjecting—

A little bit of scrutiny and you can't even stand it here in the chamber, bleating and moaning over there. This is the scale of the work that has to be done by the Treasurer and his department to make sure Australia's interests are looked after. The former Treasurer, Mr Morrison, handed over to Mr Frydenberg a Foreign Investment Review Board structure with $16.6 billion to be managed with terms and conditions and two people allocated to the task of looking after the nation. The government is not up to the job, and it's certainly not interested in transparency. The critical infrastructure act of 2018 was supposed to fix the problem but didn't do the job and the Foreign Investment Review Board was left to operate in a black box, with no transparency or accountability. That is why today's private member's matter that is being debated is of some importance. It is because it is a tiny indication, a minuscule indication, of some interest in transparency. In the Senate Economic References Committee last month I was shocked to find out that at no time has Alinta Energy, since the federal government's approval of its purchase by Chinese company Chow Tai Fook, been compliant with all set conditions of the Foreign Investment Review Board. We're talking about April 2017, and here we are now, having clicked into June. That evidence was received on 15 May. That is a failure of governance at a national level, in terms of national interest and security.

Also, just last month the Foreign Investment Review Board indicated it was unaware of known and reported investment links between Mr Henry Cheng, the principal of Chow Tai Fook, which now owns Australia's Alinta Energy, and the Ho family of Macau gambling infamy. Concerns about the Ho family were sufficient to prevent them from being allowed to invest in gambling ventures in Australia, but, unknown to Treasury officials. Mr Cheng, who owns Alinta Energy with his company Chow Tai Fook, also owns a 9.7 per cent investment with the Ho family in another entity, SJM. It strikes me as very peculiar that standards for buying into a casino appear to be much higher than the standards set and supervised by this government for the purchase of an electricity retailer with over a million Australian customers, with all their data and identities in the hands of Alinta.

But this is what this government is all about, isn't it? A smoke-and-mirrors game, a charade, of doing more than they actually are. In the upcoming months, Australians will see how wanting this government actually is when it comes to the tasks of proper governance, transparency, and accountability. That's why the legislation before us today is just one part of an important and necessary mechanism of accountability that brings some accountability to this government.

The bill before us today is a sensible and reasonable step forward with regard to the waiver of debts. Let's talk about debts and those who did not get a debt waived—in fact, those who were pursued by government, hounded in some cases, to their ultimate demise, through the robodebt scheme. It's incredibly relevant that we discuss transparency and debt with regard to the recent revelations that the government has now agreed to repay $721 million in illegal robodebts that they generated. They created the invoices and sent them out to hundreds of thousands of Australians. If you were in a business and you sent out debts that you made up on half of the information, you would not be able to operate. No small business that I've ever seen, known or been a part of has ever been able to carry on with a lack of transparency of the scale that we've seen from this government.

I spoke last week in this place about the everlasting and damaging impact of the government's robo scheme on trust in this nation. Last week, in response to a question from my colleague and friend the honourable Mr Bill Shorten, the Prime Minister apologised, in a half-hearted way, for any hurt and harm people suffered from the government's robodebt scheme. But that was after stonewalling for months, and after implementing a scheme, by his design, that inflicted pain and suffering on Australians for years. Let me be very clear to those opposite. Firstly, your apologies, five years too late, are completely inadequate. Secondly, do not think for one second that an apology, given late and half-heartedly, will do what needs to be done to redress the shame of robodebt and the stench of it that hangs around this LNP government. Your robodebt extortion racket has ravaged people's lives and left a trail of carnage through people's lives, in credit issues, personal trauma, and in loss of life. Answers to Senate questions on notice revealed that 2,030 people died after receiving robodebt notices. That's a lot of Australians—a lot of Australians severely impacted by the decisions of Mr Morrison and Mr Porter, implemented by Mr Stuart Robert.

Robodebt has targeted members of my community on the Central Coast. I'm aware of three students in one family in Empire Bay who were collectively sent debts of nearly $10,000 as they tried to work their way through university. Now, I'm a mother of three young people. When this government demanded that people go back and find their receipts, or find their documents for payment received for any work, going back seven years, it revealed that they had no sense of understanding of how young people in Australia might keep records. This was a critical change that they undertook. Instead of doing the work to check, with the resources of government, they took people out of work at the highest level here in government and transferred all responsibility to 17-year-olds who reached the age of 24, trying to struggle through university, saying, 'Go back and get your payslips'—from entities that no longer existed. That's what they did with robodebt.

I also know of a teacher on the Central Coast who was sent a robodebt of nearly $7,000. She couldn't get a response from Centrelink, despite numerous efforts, and was harassed and publicly shamed in her home by the arrival of debt collectors. I won't forget the man who was robodebted $17,500. It would have taken him 22½ years to pay it back, but this government pursued him mercilessly. That was all unlawful, causing needless harm.

Only when confronted with the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Australians getting their day in court has this government executed a backflip for the ages and announced a plan to repay the victims of robodebt. They've been dragged kicking and screaming to this point. An apology will never be enough for this robodebt extortion racket. Victims and their families need a solemn promise that this scheme will never rear its ugly head again. I call on the Prime Minister to genuinely and penitently acknowledge the needless pain that they've suffered. All those responsible for the program ignored the mountain of evidence, because they're not interested in transparency. (Time expired)