Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the documents.

In taking note of this response, I think it is worth reminding those following at home of exactly where we are at this moment. It is a week since the passage through this Senate of a Greens bill to establish the protections needed for witnesses to give evidence to the disability abuse royal commission while being fully protected. That bill passed this chamber with the support of the crossbench. In response to that bill passing, the government said: 'Oh, no, we've got our own bill coming. It's going to be much better and it's going to address all of these other issues. We're going to do it before the end of the autumn sitting.' It was one of those rare occasions where a coalition government said, 'We support what the Greens want to do and we want to go further.'

Senator Whish-Wilson interjecting—

Unprecedented, Senator Whish-Wilson. Yet on the legislative agenda published for this week there was not a single bill listed that dealt with this issue—even though the government has had 18 months to deal with this issue. It has had 18 months to respond to the community, 18 months to respond to the demands of the commission itself, and the Attorney-General has failed to do so, once again seeming to stall a change which the community desperately needs.

There can be no excuse for this type of delay. I ask government senators to reflect upon it. Why is it that your government was dragged kicking and screaming to the establishment of the royal commission? It was established. People have begun to tell their stories. As part of that process it has become abundantly clear that this very simple legislative change is needed to extend the current confidentiality provisions so that they exist in perpetuity, protecting people's confidentiality and privacy and ensuring that they do not come to harm if they tell their stories to the disability abuse royal commission. You knew about it in February 2019; the chair of the royal commission wrote to you in February 2020; the interim report, published in October 2020, identified it as an impediment to the investigation; yet here we are in February 2021 and you still have not acted.

It seems very clear to me that the only thing that ever drew a solid statement on this out of you folks was that the bill ended up passing the Senate in the first place, spooking you into doing something. In some ways I bloody well hope that that is the case. If not, we have an Attorney-General's Department that takes 18 months to craft a basic piece of legislation, which is very worrying for this country. But I cannot think it is the case, because I do remember, as I'm sure Senator Whish-Wilson does, the speed with which the Attorney-General's office was able to respond when a few needles were found in strawberries. We had legislation dealing with that within a couple of weeks. If only disabled people were needles in strawberries; maybe we would have had action by now. If only disability abuse seemed to threaten some of the government's regional allies; maybe we would have had action by now. This is one of the most farcical stalemates I have seen in three years. Surely you cannot want to sit on that side of the chamber in the pocket of 'big abuse'? Surely you want to see people tell their stories? Surely you want to see people give this evidence as to how they have been so poorly treated?

This is something that could have passed in the blink of an eye in this place. We could have banged it through in non-contro with very little debate. It could have been done in March last year. We could have gathered an entire year of evidence. Instead, we have seen a structural impediment to this historic investigation continue. It is absolutely unacceptable that it is 18 months later and the government is still stalling. There can be no further delay from the Attorney-General or the Prime Minister. As I understand your conception of the autumn sitting, it ends at the end of March. That gives you two more weeks after the conclusion of this Senate sitting week to get that bill through—to get it through, get it done, get people the protections they need. While you're at it, could you be so polite as to respond to the royal commission's request for an extension of 15 months to its life? As it's owing in no small part to the fact that the commission has lost 18 months buggering about trying to get you to do this, that would be much appreciated. All you need to do is to do your job and get out of the way. The evidence will flow. Get on and do it. You have two weeks left. The community are watching you, and we expect action. I thank the chamber for its time and I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted.