Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Under standing order 74(5)(c), I move:

That the Senate take note of the minister's failure to provide answers to the 108 questions asked by Labor senators on notice.

Here we stand today, in this chamber, and this government is trying to argue technicalities about standing orders. Well, understand this: standing orders require the government to answer questions on notice and to answer them in a certain time frame. It is not a technicality to avoid accountability. It is your responsibility as a government to be answerable to this chamber. It is the responsibility of the government to be accountable to the questions posed by senators, and it is your responsibility as a government to conform to the standing orders. The standing orders require the government to answer questions posed by senators, including on notice.

There are 108 questions sitting unanswered by this government since October 2019. I hope that everyone watching this broadcast today understands that Senator Birmingham and the government he represents in this chamber have left 108 questions unanswered. They are turning their backs on accountability. As a government they are turning their backs on their accountability to the Senate, they are turning their backs on their responsibility and they are turning their backs on the Australian people.

We are just days away from another week of estimates, where no doubt this list I have in my hand of 108 questions that are unanswered by this government—this government, led in this chamber by Senator Birmingham, are turning their backs on their responsibility and arguing a technicality to try and keep me from making this contribution. It is a technicality they say is in the standing orders. It's not a technicality for Senator Birmingham and his colleagues to answer the questions put to them on notice.

A fish rots from the head down. It is no surprise that apathy towards accountability, a willingness to turn your back on accountability, plagues the Morrison government. It starts with the Prime Minister's office. 'I don't hold a hose, mate,' said the Prime Minister. He doesn't hold an inquiry when serious allegations of rape are levelled at his Attorney-General. And he doesn't hold out any hope for this chamber that questions will be answered. What do we have here today? A government that is turning its back on accountability—a government that has turned around and said: 'No, we don't hold the hose. We don't hold responsibility. We don't hold seriously our accountability.'

There are 108 unanswered questions, some dating back to October 2019. The Prime Minister is the worst offender. The minister who Senator Birmingham represents in this chamber is the worst offender in not answering questions on notice. It was Senator Birmingham who just moments ago tried to argue a technicality so that I couldn't speak to this and it is Senator Birmingham who is turning his back on his responsibility to ensure that the minister he represents in this chamber, the Prime Minister, answers the questions on notice put to him by senators.

As I said, we are days away from estimates. No doubt this list of 108 questions is going to grow. But it doesn't stop with the Prime Minister. There are another 47 answers overdue from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, which is led by the Deputy Prime Minister himself. There are another 25 answers overdue from Minister Rushton, who is also Manager of Government Business in this place. We have the Prime Minister. We have the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Birmingham. We have the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. We have the Minister for Families and Social Services in this chamber, Senator Ruston. These are the three biggest offenders in not answering questions on notice and turning their backs on accountability.

We have seen this government turn its back in recent days and weeks—in fact, years. Over seven years, this government has turned its back on the Australian people. They have left the Australian people behind and they are leaving behind their responsibility to be accountable to this parliament and, through this parliament, to the Australian people. Understand this: a government that doesn't think it has a responsibility to answer questions under the standing orders is a government that no longer thinks it is accountable to this parliament or to the Australian people.

Unfortunately, we don't just have the evidence of 108 unanswered questions since October 2019. We also have the evidence of a government that has delivered a dodgy NBN and that has paid $30 million for airport land in Western Sydney that was worth only $3 million. We have evidence of a government that has presided over sports rorts, handing out taxpayer money as if it were Liberal Party money to marginal seats on colour coded spreadsheets. We have a government that is willing to take the Safer Communities Fund and disregard and reject the legitimate safety needs of communities across Australia and instead put that money into marginal and Liberal seats to make them safer for the Liberal Party. That is a government that has turned its back on the Australian people. That is a government that has turned its back on parliamentary responsibility.

This is a government that promised a national integrity commission. Where is it? It hasn't been delivered by the Attorney-General, Christian Porter. It remains in draft legislation because this government does not believe it needs to be held accountable. They continue to turn their back on the scandals, on the incompetence, on the corruption. This is a government that can't even answer questions on notice much less set up a national integrity commission to ensure that we don't have regional road rorts, safer communities rorts, sports rorts, dodgy land deals and a dodgy NBN.

Distressingly, this week we've also seen that this government has turned its back on the Australian people, particularly Australian women. Australian women were out in force here in Canberra and in locations across the country. One hundred and ten thousand women, and men, marched to say, 'Enough is enough,' because they want answers from this government. Where is the Respect@work report and its 55 recommendations seeking to establish greater equality for Australian women? Where does it sit? It sits as work undone, unanswered by this government. As with the 108 unanswered questions, the government don't think they're accountable for the Respect@work report. They don't think they're responsible for that. We even heard the Minister for Women, Senator Payne, today talk about the private sector. Is there nothing this government won't outsource to the private sector? Her claim: she didn't really have to get progressing; she didn't have to encourage the Attorney-General to get going on that, because the private sector had a lot of responsibility here. There are 55 recommendations to the government. Only three of them have been implemented—only three! So again we have a government turning its back on its responsibilities.

During the last sitting period, the Senate ordered the production of answers to 631 overdue questions on notice from estimates hearings, dating back to 2019—631! Even when compelled by the Senate to finally answer these questions, there are ministers in this government, members of this very chamber, who just plainly refuse to do their jobs, who just turn their back on their responsibilities. I know that senators who have their back turned on me right now can hear me. They should face their responsibilities, as leaders, as frontbenchers, and be accountable to the parliament. The fact that the Prime Minister is the No. 1 offender when it comes to not answering questions on notice—