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

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Another week goes by and another failure to comply from the Albanese government to this simple request of the Senate. The Senate once again refutes the public interest immunity claim made by the government over this vital document. Again, I remind the government that this is the document on the basis of which the government in its budget has booked billions of dollars of cuts—so-called savings they present to the chamber—in our NDIS. I find it ironic that we are once again back here trying to extract this basic information from the government, asking them to engage in what really should be a baseline level of transparency at a time when the minister, Bill Shorten and others, are out right now engaging in a public campaign calling on state and territory ministers to join with them in changes to the NDIS. One of bases of these requests for changes is they say we should be able to come together transparently and collaboratively to chart the pathway forward for the NDIS.

I would suggest that if the government want to states and territories to join with them in that work, let alone if the government want the disability community to have trust in the government as they undertake that work, the very least they could do is comply with a basic request from the Australian Senate to produce a financial sustainability framework that they signed off with their state and territory chief ministers and premiers before the last budget. If the government can't even cough up a basic document like this, upon which over $50 billion of so-called savings has been baked into the federal budget, then why should the states and territories engage in a process of reform with the Commonwealth? And why should the public trust the government in this work if they aren't willing to be transparent about the agreements they have already made with state and territory chief ministers and premiers? No reason at all.

This Senate, at least for the part of the Australian Greens, will continue to insist that the government comply with the orders of the Senate and cough up this document, which they agreed with state and territory chief ministers and upon which they put so much emphasis in their budget. It may annoy members in the ALP Senate team that we continue to do this, but, quite frankly, the annoyance of the ALP Senate team is nothing compared to the obligation I feel to the 4.4 million disabled Australians who want to know exactly what their government has already agreed in relation to their NDIS, particularly when that government has framed the so call independent review of the NDIS as an authentic explanation and exploration of what is to be the future of the NDIS.

A key question remains in the minds of the disability community. In the independent review of the NDIS is independent, if it was really empowered to explore what the future of the NDIS should be, then why, during the conduct of the review, did the government admit to a framework upon which it then booked over $50 billion in so-called saved revenue in relation to the NDIS?

That is a very legitimate question. The government may wish to refute that, and all they need to do to put that concern to rest is to cough up the document—so cough it up. It is a simple and basic thing to do. We have asked you now sitting after sitting. As far as the Greens are concerned, we will continue to ask you for this document because it is a request for a basic level of transparency that you committed to at the federal election.