Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to those comments and to address the answer from Minister Watt to Senator Chandler. Obviously this issue has been the subject of debate and a Senate inquiry, and it has been referred to by those opposite. Our Senate colleagues participated in that Senate inquiry, and the department appeared, and there was evidence given, in the normal course of practice. These are the precedents that we set. It is not within the precedents of the Senate to expect House ministers to appear at those Senate inquiries. But those opposite have decided that there is a new level of transparency and accountability that they want to seek, for the purpose of creating a politically motivated attack. What we are seeking to do is to provide the information that has been asked of us and to make sure that we can continue to act in the national interest. I know those opposite haven't yet said whether they support the national interest and why they wouldn't, but that seems to be an implication from the arguments they are making.

In regard to the Senate inquiry—the subject of the comments made by the previous senator—I'd just draw the attention of people in the community to the dissenting report from Labor senators in response to that inquiry. The dissenting report raised significant concerns about the conduct of the inquiry and the clear political basis of and inaccuracies in the majority report. As to the way these Senate inquiries work: obviously, the majority is able to provide a report, but it still can be fact-checked, and this one was—it was fact-checked by our Senate colleagues who provided a dissenting report. What was clear from that was that the Liberal and National parties really did have no regard for the complexity of the issue at hand and ignored the full evidence presented to the committee. What we are talking about when we talk about the complexity of this issue is the very delicate and intricate nature of our aviation sector here in Australia; how it interacts with international markets; how it's influenced by different factors internationally; and how important it is that we do have a strong aviation sector here in Australia so that we can have flights to places like those in regional Queensland, where I live, sustainably continued, and have access to those places. These things were essentially ignored by the majority report and by the Liberal and National senators.

The dissenting report said:

The Committee also heard evidence—including from Marque Lawyers and several trade union groups—about concerns going back many years over Qatar Airways' ability to act as good corporate citizens.

That's some of the evidence that was ignored by the committee and that's some of the evidence that hasn't been referred to in the taking note of answers today. I encourage members to really consider the evidence that has been given by people who understand the aviation sector a lot better, I would say, than those opposite.

When it comes to transparency and accountability, one thing that won't be happening in this Senate any time soon is any member of this government taking lectures about transparency and accountability from members of the Liberal and National parties after 10 years of what essentially became a degraded government unable to provide accountability, unable to be transparent, hiding reports, refusing to publish certain things and not providing documents to Senate inquiries. The list goes on in terms of responses to the sports rorts inquiry, car park rorts and all these issues that we sought information on through the usual practices in the chamber and were refused that information.

We are not going to take lectures from people who continue to defend the former Prime Minister, who had multiple ministries. When it comes to transparency and accountability, fish rots from the top, and these guys continue to defend a former prime minister who not only deceived this chamber but also deceived the Australian public by signing up to multiple ministries. Our ministers will not be taking lectures on transparency and accountability and what is in the national interest by members of the Liberal Party who continue to defend sports rorts, car park rorts or the multiple ministries of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison. What we will do is continue to act in the national interest.