David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Of course the Greens support this motion. We commend the senator for bringing them forward. The Greens will always stand by transparency. What we can't understand is how the club of Labor and the coalition join together every time to protect their self-interest and to protect their secret contract with the donors and big business. That's what this motion is about. It's exposing how the corporate donor turns up to a minister's office on Monday and gets the policy outcome on Tuesday. They turn up and talk to the minister privately on Wednesday and get the legislation introduced on Friday. That's how the system works.

It's no wonder that the club is protecting it. It's no wonder that Labor and the coalition are joining together to prevent showing us who ministers are meeting with. These are public officials delivering billions of dollars of public money—major policy decisions—and they won't even tell us who they are meeting with.

This is hardly revolutionary. State governments manage to disclose who their ministers meet with. Even the New South Wales government, not known for its amazing integrity levels, will tell you who the ministers are meeting with. That's how we know the coalition planning minister in New South Wales met with a major property developer on one day and then, on the same day, killed most of the environmental regulations over planning.

What are you hiding?