Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution to this important debate to take note of the minister's response—or, effectively, nonresponse—to the order for the production of documents in relation to the Gabba project. Senator Allman-Payne raised this order for the production of documents specifically in relation to the school, but I think constituents in Senator Scarr's state of Queensland have genuine cause to be concerned about this circumstance. I quote the words of Minister Grace Grace describing the Gabba project, saying:

We do not know the footprint, we do not know the design, we have a schematic sketch, we are still stabbing in the dark.

I was the Minister for Sport when this project was sprung on the previous coalition government. Only a few days after received a list of proposed projects that the government wanted funding for for the Olympic bid, this sudden announcement of the Gabba project appeared, and that's exactly why the then government said, 'We're prepared to support a fifty-fifty funding bill for the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics, but on the condition that there is a process of discipline put in place to provide oversight to protect taxpayers in the expenditure of billions of dollars.' We did that so the Commonwealth would have a say as part of that process.

As has been said by my colleagues, there's been no indication whether the current government intends to continue with what was the core element of that fifty-fifty deal—that there would be a body in place to provide the Commonwealth and the state, but particularly the Commonwealth, some protection for taxpayers' funds in the planning and construction of those projects. It's a very, very sensible discipline to be put in place to protect Australian taxpayers in the expenditure of billions of dollars. I suspect the real reason this government doesn't want to provide this information: it's not to protect the relationship between the Australian government and the Queensland government but to protect both governments from embarrassment at the situation that exists right now.