Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to put the opposition's full support behind this motion from the Greens. Again, it is fantastic to stand as one on the role of this chamber in our parliamentary democracy. Once again, we have seen Senator Watt have to do Minister King's dirty work and shuffle ashamedly as a Queensland senator into this chamber for an infrastructure minister who is not across her brief and who seeks to treat this chamber and the taxpayers' money that she is in charge of with disrespect. We just asked a simple question.

They are the government; they can make decisions. But they have to tell us. If they're going to actually claim public interest immunity in this place, there are certain reasons why they can claim that. They say it would prejudice the relationship between the Palaszczuk government in Queensland and the Albanese Labor government here in Canberra. I find that pretty hard to believe. One of the things under the standing orders of the Senate is that you have to write to the state you are claiming that about and ask: 'Do you have a problem with us releasing this? Do you have a problem with us talking about this?' You ask them. The minister came in and, once again, could not actually answer that question.

If you look back on their time in opposition, they crowed a number of times about how they would approach accountability and transparency. Senator Gallagher said, 'The Senate should not accept it,' and that we should 'stand up' and actually demand transparency and accountability for government. They get on the Treasury benches and within nine months they are running as far as they can from their own public decisions.

I was on ABC Brisbane this morning, talking about this exact issue. The listeners in Brisbane are absolutely incensed about this. I think earlier contributions made clear they're concerned about the impact that this redevelopment will have on their local community, they're very concerned with the lack of consultation and they're incredibly concerned about the cost. I just want to read some of the comments of ABC Brisbane listeners on this: 'Leave the Gabba alone.'; 'It would be a short-term disaster for the Olympics, especially with Cross River Rail.'; 'The Olympics needs a purpose-built facility for this major global event, not a retrofit designed to show the management of companies seeking to run both Brisbane live venues and the Gabba after the Olympics.'; and 'I don't know anyone in the proposed business plan, which speaks volumes about the fact that we're potentially committing to a project that there is potentially no business plan for.' Another caller said: 'We don't know anyone in our area in favour of the Gabba development for the games. We'll keep messages going to our reps in parliament.' It's not always friendly country for the AFL up in Queensland, but 40,000 Lions AFL members and Gabba members are absolutely deafened by the silence from the Palaszczuk government and the Albanese government. Another comment was: 'Anyone unfortunate enough to drive through the roads surrounding the Gabba should be asked their opinion. The Olympic Committee should come up with another, more feasible, stadium.'

Just on that: we know the Gabba Redevelopment wasn't part of the Olympics bid. The former coalition government had a process in place with the Palaszczuk government. We'd fund fifty-fifty of that infrastructure, and we'd have an oversight body so that we could both be assured that the public spend would be in both the state and the national interest for taxpayers, and deliver legacy projects for the people of Queensland that were great for our athletes and great for the hundreds of thousands of spectators that will come to see the games in eight years time—but that would, importantly, leave a legacy for the citizens of Queensland and the broader Australian community.

This federal Labor government cannot make a decision to save themselves. It's nine months later, and the whole process has stalled. You've got public schools concerned, parents concerned and students concerned, because Catherine King and Anika Wells can't get their act together.