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

At the heart of the minister's attendance before the chamber this morning is the issue of accountability and transparency of this government. Before the election, the Prime Minister promised to lead the most transparent and accountable government ever, but, through the actions of this government, we are finding that, in fact, the Prime Minister leads the least transparent and the least accountable government since Federation. Day after day, the Senate asks for documents, the attendance of ministers and for information relating to the expenditure of taxpayers' money and to decisions concerning the safety of Australia and its citizens, and day after day the executive of this country snubs its nose at the Senate and, by snubbing its nose at the Senate, snubs its nose at the Australian people. That is what we are talking about here today.

This Senate, this house of review, elected by the Australian people, has passed a motion concerning an order for the production of documents, and the government has failed continually to release those documents. For those listening at home, we're not asking for the documents to be put on the web or on the Prime Minister's Facebook page. We're not asking for the documents to be put in the public domain. We're asking for these documents concerning a terrorist organisation, which is actively involved in the murder of innocent citizens and in the production of terror activities across the world, to be released to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security—a committee that meets in private.

What has the government got to hide here? This is what this debate is about. The senators asked for these documents to be released. We know that these documents exist; it's not a fishing exercise. We know that the documents that have been requested are in existence, but this government have said no, they won't release them. They've claimed public interest immunity, but they've failed to substantiate the claims of public interest immunity. The minister 's statement here before was a very nice collection of words that may have had the correct amounts of nouns and adverbs and adjectives to construct a sentence, but they did not construct a narrative as to why these documents should not be released. The government are hiding something, really hiding something.

This Senate has the right and the power for these documents to be so ordered and released to the relevant parliamentary committee. So it comes down to transparency. Prime Minister, what are you hiding? Minister, what are you hiding? Executive cabinet, what are you hiding from the Australian people? This order for the production of documents does not relate to the angle at which paperclips should be bent. It is not an order for the production of documents for what size horseshoes should be. It is an order for the production of documents relating to a terrorist organisation, a terrible—there's tautology here—terrible terrorist organisation, which on a daily basis is actively involved in the murder of innocent people around the world. Yet this government are refusing to release the documents. As similarly bad as that, they are refusing to say on what basis they are refusing to release these documents to a committee that meets in private, is represented by the parties in government and can make decisions in relation to the security and the defence of this country to make sure that Australians can sleep safely in their beds at night. I say to the Prime Minister and the Labor Party: what do you have to hide? You promised to be transparent, but you're not being transparent. Day after day you mislead the Australian people, and you need to be better. (Time expired)