David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome Senator Lambie's focus on transparency when it comes to diaries. I remind Minister Gallagher that we are only here talking about this today because the major parties voted against what I really see as the bare minimum when it comes to transparency of ministers—who they're meeting with and who is influencing the decisions they make. They wield a huge amount of power, and Australians deserve to know who is feeding into the decisions that affect so many Australians. We hear that the government take transparency seriously, and yet they don't want to allow Australians to see who ministers are meeting. The NACC won't have public hearings unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The government doesn't want people to know who the hundreds of in-house lobbyists and the hundreds of people who have sponsored passes in this building are. They point to the lobbyists register. As a new senator to this place, I have been shocked at how many people have access-all-areas passes to this building. Currently there are 700 people who have sponsored passes, and Australians have no idea who they are. They walk down these halls and they have meetings. I have no issue with that. I really have no issue with that. It is the sign of a good democracy that this place is open and accessible. But Australians deserve to know who they are. Australians deserve to know who has that access. It's a check on all of us. If you are going to give someone a sponsored pass, you should have to think: 'This person will be on the register of interest, and the public will know. The public will know who I am vouching for to have access to this building.'

As I said, there are currently 700 people with sponsored passes. At the end of the last parliament, it got to 2,000 people. That is 2,000 people on top of the lobbyists register. The government's argument, to me, doesn't stack up. You hear all sorts of excuses, and yet this is disclosed in the UK, the US and New Zealand. If we are going to take transparency seriously, we have to stop seeing this situation where the major parties team up against the entire crossbench to protect themselves. They know that they will have their turn at some stage. I thought this was summed up in question time a few weeks back when Minister Wong was asked about releasing her diary. Her response was, 'I bet you didn't release yours, did you, mate?' It's simply not good enough that when you are in opposition you can say all these things about transparency. When you are in government, do it.

Australians want more transparency. The crossbench is listening to our communities say, 'We deserve more transparency.' Yet yesterday this chamber voted against Senator Lambie's motion to get in line with all of these countries across the world that have decided that this is a bare minimum in a democracy, that people should know who is meeting with decision-makers and feeding into these big decisions. So I thank Senator Lambie for this opportunity. I thank the crossbench, including former senator Rex Patrick for his work in this area. This is something that the crossbench will continue to push the major parties on. It is not good enough, and Australians are demanding more. We're here to represent them, and we will keep pushing the major parties on this issue.