Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Shoebridge for getting things started in my absence. He did a great job, as always. I'm happy for him to step into my shoes any time.

I'm glad we have a chance now to disallow this regulation. I'm hoping we take full advantage of it because it's done. There are a number of reasons to disallow this regulation, and I'm happy for senators to take their pick of whichever one they like. We should disallow this regulation because it is not transparent. It was made through a one-off grant without a competitive tender. It's fair to ask: why? It's not like there was any track record it could point to that would suggest it was a safe bet for taxpayer money. The foundation was not operational before the grant was announced. It had no staff, no office, no website and no profile.

We'll never know the basis on which the decision to award this grant was made. We know it was hidden from public view. Grants normally get published on the government's online GrantConnect hub, and this one was not. The Governor-General was meeting with the former Prime Minister to lobby him over the project, or maybe he wasn't—it depends on who you ask. He says he wasn't lobbying for it and his office says he wasn't lobbying for it, but its director says he was meeting with the government over it. I don't know what to make of that. Let's just say it's not very transparent. Maybe you don't mind the transparency issue.

We should disallow this because it was a waste of money. This is not just my opinion. The Treasurer confirmed that the government had concluded that the $18 million initial grant and $4 million a year of ongoing funding didn't pass muster and did not represent value for money. So it doesn't pass muster and it doesn't represent value for money. We do not need to spend $30 million over the next four years setting up a program for rich kids to get told how to rule the world. Trust me, I know a few rich kids, and they don't need any help getting told how to rule the world. They feel very well equipped to do that without help. So it's an unnecessary and wasteful spend. Maybe that doesn't bother you either.

Finally, we should disallow this because it is weird. Even if you think this is a perfectly useful way to spend tens of millions of dollars of public money, this is a weird way to go about spending it. According to the ABC, the person pushing this sent emails saying the Prime Minister's office would own the project. Promotional material for the program boasts of support from organisations and individuals who apparently have nothing to do with it. The organisation was granted charity status, seemingly without doing anything. It listed a Barangaroo address as its registered office, but the address was a law firm. It's not transparent, it's not necessary and it's not normal. Nothing about this stacks up. Everything about this should go. I urge my colleagues to get rid of it by supporting this motion. It's good to see Labor scrapping the money. Let's disallow this because it's weird and it's dumb. Let's scrap it.

Question agreed to.