Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

In response to the government's restatement of their previous statement: this is getting a bit ridiculous now, folks. This is a demand of the Senate for the government to comply with an order for the production of documents. This is a very serious matter. This chamber is given the power to request documents of the government. In going about the process of refusing to provide that information, the government, having made a public interest immunity claim, must satisfy the basic criteria of such a claim. Let me quote them directly so that the words are freshly in the mind of the government: 'The government must explain the harm that would be caused to the relationships between the Commonwealth, states and territories if that is the basis upon which the claim is made.' They have not made clear what specific harm will be caused to these relationships resulting from the release of this information. The Senate is requesting the details in relation to the NDIS financial sustainability framework that has been agreed to by the Prime Minister, the premiers and the territory chief ministers. Upon the basis of that framework, the government has booked tens of billions of dollars worth of reductions in NDIS expenditure. That practically means a reduction in the supports available to disabled people to have a shower, to meet up with our friends, to go to work, to interact with our family members, to access our therapies, to be able to get the wheelchairs and the assistive technologies that we need. This is serious stuff that impacts our lives. They got together in a room, agreed on a framework and are now refusing to release it when they used their own budget to book savings based on this framework. And now, in a blatant, flagrant disregard for the role of the Senate, they are not even, at every sitting period, as they are required, coming to this place and giving an updated explanation for their continued refusal to comply with the orders. This is beginning to look a bit shifty, folks! This is beginning to look like they've got something to hide. This is beginning to look like the Labor government, elected on a platform of ending the duplicity, the dishonesty and the disregard with which the former government treated disabled people, have instead decided to pick up the same playbook. This is completely unacceptable conduct from a government that promised a reset in the relationship between disabled people, the NDIS and the Australian government. This framework should have been made public the minute it was finalised in a form sufficient enough to be sent to the National Cabinet.

The chopping and changing of stories in relation to this information beggars belief. First they told us it didn't exist. Then they told us it did exist, but they wouldn't give it to us because to give it to the Australian public would be to damage relationships between the states, the territories and the Commonwealth. What absolute nonsense! And you can see that it is nonsense because they ain't backed up the claim. All they would have to do to satisfy this order for the production of documents, to satisfy the basis of their public interest claim, would be to pony up and share exactly how it would damage that relationship, to cough up some correspondence between these premiers and chief ministers where they had requested the Commonwealth make this claim. They haven't because it doesn't exist.

The Commonwealth is just playing a game. The Albanese government is insulting disabled people, and it is insulting this Senate. So far, this place has maintained a solidarity of pressure upon the government to comply. Let us see how long that lasts. But I can tell the chamber very clearly: the Australian Greens want this information on behalf of disabled people. We are in solidarity with the community that is demanding that the Albanese government be open and honest about what they have agreed in relation to our NDIS.