Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always a privilege and a deep honour to follow my good friend Senator McGrath, from the wonderful state of Queensland. I'd like to associate myself with all of the remarks that Senator McGrath made during his contribution in this debate, including his reference to various types of marsupials—or animals—and plumbing.

What people, and members of the gallery, need to understand in relation to this debate is that what we're talking about here is that a majority in this chamber—and the coalition can't achieve a majority in this chamber in its own right, but the coalition, in addition to crossbench senators, Independents and the Greens—passed a resolution requiring the government to produce documents. So a majority of this chamber, across all of the parties and Independents who aren't in government, supported a motion that the government produce documents to this chamber.

Everyone sitting in this chamber has an obligation to discharge our duties to each of our states as a house of review, and we wanted to see the correspondence in relation to major infrastructure projects in the budget—the correspondence between the federal government and each of the states. That's the background to this debate, and, in order to discharge our duty as a house of review—a check on the power of the executive—we need access to those documents. And a majority of senators determined that.

A 55-second response is all we got in terms of a response to the majority of the senators in this chamber requesting those documents. The 55-second response was: 'No, because it might damage relationships between the federal government and the state government.' Well, let's look at that. If you're going to use that as a reason, I say that, at the very least, you've got to pick up this thing called a phone, ring the state governments and ask them if they have an objection. You do your best to fulfil the request of the Senate, so the first thing you do is pick up one of these things called a phone and actually ask, 'Do you have any objection if we provide these documents?' Then, if the relevant state government objects, come back to this chamber and tell us. Tell us whether or not each of the state governments rejected that request. Then each of those state governments has to be responsible to their constituents and explain why they rejected that request. That's how the system should work. But there's no transparency in relation to either (a) the documents, because the government refuse to provide them, or (b) the process. What was the process? Maybe you didn't ask the question because you weren't sure what the answer would be. Maybe the state governments would have said yes, and then you wouldn't be able to raise the argument that it might damage the relationship between the federal government and the state government. Don't ask a question if you don't know what the answer's going to be!

We had exactly the same issue arise earlier this week with respect to the proposed redevelopment of the Gabba cricket ground in my home state of Queensland and the potential impact on East Brisbane State School, a state school that has been in existence since 1899. My state government in Queensland, the Palaszczuk Labor government, is talking about a redevelopment of the Gabba. It was a $1 billion redevelopment. It has become a $2.5 billion redevelopment which would provide a staggering 8,000 extra seats—8,000 extra seats for $2.5 billion. I have spoken to people who have gone to that school, and I took my good friend the opposition spokesperson Senator Ruston on a tour of that school, a beautiful school, and the school community want to know the future of their school. What's going to happen to their school? They've got a right to the answers to those questions. They have a right to know. Yet all we get is a blanket refusal—not even bothering to pick up the phone and ask the state government whether or not they would object. At least, if you did that, then the people of Queensland could rightly go to the Queensland state government and say, 'Why are you objecting to that? We have a right to know.'

In conclusion, I'd also like to say that we always know when we've hit the mark with Minister Watt when he goes from dealing with the substance of the point to making personal reflections on those on this side of the chamber. I just want to say about my friend and colleague Senator McKenzie that I don't think anyone could have discharged their obligations to this place with as much decency and honour as Senator McKenzie did in the course of the last parliament. I think she met every single standard that should be expected of a minister in the Westminster system, and she should be applauded for that. With that, I thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President, for the opportunity to make those remarks.