James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the additional estimates reports of 2023-24 tabled by the government whip.

In particular, I wish to take note of the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee's additional estimates report of 2023-24. It is quite disappointing that we have a government led by a Prime Minister who promised to be the most transparent ever but yet is actually the least transparent government since federation. I'll give you an example of this. There were 259 questions put on notice following the cross-portfolio on Indigenous matters in our budget estimates on 9 November 2023. This was part of the supplementary budget estimates. Only 96 of these questions had been answered by 16 January this year, despite the deadline for answers being 15 December 2023. Indeed, for the cross-portfolio Indigenous matters, the government had answered only 115 of the 259 questions that were put just one week prior to the 2023-24 additional budget estimates of the Finance and Public Administration Committee that was held on 16 February of this year.

It gets far worse. To continue to avoid scrutiny, the remaining 142 questions that were outstanding—and outstanding for some months—were answered, rather amazingly, the night before. Between 5.37 pm and 6.34 pm the night before the cross-portfolio Indigenous matters estimates hearing was due to meet, these questions were answered. I want to highlight the work of highlighting and asking the government about the expenditure of public moneys in relation to the cross-portfolio Indigenous matters that coalition senators have done—and I want to acknowledge the work of Senator Nampijinpa Price and Senator Liddle in relation to the questions they put, along with other coalition senators—and highlight the fact that the coalition senators were only informed that their outstanding questions on notice had been answered just nine minutes before the estimates hearings commenced, despite the deadline being two months previous. Indeed, the answers to the questions on notice were only published 90 minutes after the cross-portfolio Indigenous matters hearing had already begun.

This is not just disappointing; it is disrespectful of the democratic process. It is disrespectful of the role of this chamber. Indeed, it is disrespectful of those Indigenous Australians who want crossbench senators and coalition senators to put forward questions and issues in relation to the expenditure of public moneys. It is disrespectful to the concerns of Indigenous Australians. We should not forget that this is a government that wasted $450 million on a divisive voice referendum last year yet fails to be able to answer, in many cases, quite simple questions that have been put by my colleagues, Senator Liddle and Senator Nampijinpa Price. This is the disrespect that the Prime Minister of this country and the members of the executive have not just for the estimates process but for Indigenous Australians.