James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

because you are standing up for the taxpayers of Australia, those poor, poor people. That mob over there are about to take away their stage 3 tax cuts, by the way—breaking news there. That's not going to happen; we can all see that coming down the hallway. Question two was:

Can copies of any correspondence between the Department and the Prime Minister's office about this meeting, including but not limited to email, instant messages (for example text messages, WhatsApp, etc.) or by letter be provided.

We have asked for this on behalf of the people of Australia, on behalf of the taxpayers of Australia, but also, weirdly—I don't want to be existential—we've actually asked on behalf of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has talked to all of us about the importance of transparency and accountability. He lectures us. He could bore for Australia about this. He's a bit of a chatterbox, but he doesn't deliver, and he certainly hasn't delivered on this.

Because we're team players, we want the Prime Minister to do a good job. We want the Prime Minister to deliver on his promises. We want the Prime Minister to be that man he promised to be for the last three years. We all know—it's no secret—he's not going to do that. We know that he is a creature of the socialist left and of the Labor Party. Taxes are going to go up. There are going to be new taxes. There's a giant vacuum cleaner over regional Australia at the moment, sucking all the money out of there so it can go to building trams in Redfern or something like that. As important as trams for Redfern might be, we have a Prime Minister who is not doing what he said he would do. He is not standing up for accountability and transparency.

I am going to read another question out. For those who are watching in the office or watching at home on the Internet, don't make a cup of tea or coffee. Just sit down and hold on. It's like a rollercoaster! Here it comes. Senator Cash asked the Prime Minister—Saint Anthony of accountability, transparency and telling the truth—question on notice No. 197:

With reference to the additional information provided by Minister Watt on 28 July 2022 at 3.05pm, in relation to questions taken on notice from myself—

that being Senator Cash—

in relation to a meeting held with the state and territory ministers with responsibility for workplace relations on 5 July 2022 (the meeting) …

It was a very specific time and a very specific meeting. It wasn't a meeting just with one person. This was with other ministers representing other jurisdictions, all paid for by the taxpayers of Australia. You'd think there would be some accountability here, but no.

Question No. 1:

Was the Prime Minister or his office aware of this meeting; if yes, when and how did they become aware.

I'm not the most technological person in the world, but I can go to my Microsoft Outlook, and I can do a search, look backwards and find out when I had meetings and things like that. You don't need to be a Rhodes scholar to operate a Microsoft Outlook diary and find out when you may have had a meeting or not had a meeting. There are a lot of people who work in the Prime Minister's office. We see them. They all walk around this building rather grandly and push you out of the line at Aussies and things like that because they're very important people! I think one of them could actually work out how to use Microsoft Outlook and find out: did the Prime Minister or his office become aware of this meeting on 5 July 2022? I don't know what they're doing in that office. Forty per cent of the questions have not been answered. They're paid for by the taxpayers of Australia, and we've got some very simple questions. I don't know what they're doing. So we haven't got an answer in relation to that.

Then there's question No. 2:

Did the Prime Minister or anyone from the Prime Minister's office attend this meeting; if so, who and what position do they hold.