Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It's very rare that the Greens, the entire crossbench and the coalition agree on something. Now, answering questions at estimates is not optional, but it appears that this government would like it to be. We know that from leaks of a document distributed by the Prime Minister's office to ministerial offices in recent weeks that provides advice on how to avoid answering questions in estimates. Here are just a few choice quotes from Capital Brief:

The document … urges everyone to consider referring questions to another department or agency 'where appropriate', and tells them to provide 'only information required to answer the question'.

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In the document, departments and agencies are advised to avoid answering a question on how many external retreats and speakers they have organised. Instead, they should respond with: 'The data requested is not captured centrally and obtaining it would be an unreasonable diversion of resources.'

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When asked how many meetings their secretary has had with ministers, departments are advised to respond: 'The Secretary regularly meets with portfolio ministers and, at times, ministers outside the portfolio.'

We had an earnest defence by Senator Chisholm, but that cannot overcome the fact that this is a Prime Minister's Office instruction manual on how to avoid giving meaningful answers in Senate estimates. We only know of it because someone with ethics and with concern for democracy leaked part of this document last week, which of course led to all non-government senators tabling a motion asking the government to disclose the full document and also asking the Prime Minister's representative to come in and give an account of themselves. About five seconds before that was meant to happen, the government in fact tabled a copy of the document, but it's very embarrassing that it took the threat of this motion for them to do so. It's very embarrassing for the government that they didn't fess up and do this of their own volition and that it took the rest of the chamber to force them to do the right thing. I've had a quick squiz through the full document. I don't know whether it has been altered. I don't know if that is in fact the original document, so we will scrutinise that very closely.

The second part of the motion that was going to be moved would have required Senator Wong to attend and explain 'what the actual' is going on. We called on the government to say who wrote this document, who ticked off on this document and who was sent this document. None of that has happened today in the government's hasty tabling of what they say is the full version of this cheat sheet on how to not answer questions in estimates. So we still don't know the extent of knowledge that the Prime Minister himself had over this entire debacle. What we do know is that the PMO is saying the quiet bit out loud. They clearly don't want to answer questions or provide transparent information about their decisions or their policies.

The Prime Minister should immediately retract this document. The Senate standing orders make it an offence for a witness to refuse to answer a question, unless they make a valid claim of public interest immunity, so questions in Senate estimates are meant to be answered. So much for the transparency and accountability that this Labor Party promised in government! This document does not provide advice that is consistent with the commitment that the Australian people deserve accountability and transparency, not secrecy. If the Prime Minister wants to live up to that commitment to transparency, he should immediately—today—retract this document. In recent estimates, it has been getting harder and harder to get answers to questions—and detailed answers, at that—and it is not acceptable from any government but particularly not from a government that said they would be better on transparency and accountability.

I want to flag that the author of this document—we don't know who it is because there isn't a name on the tabled version—could be in contempt of the Senate. We don't know if the Prime Minister wrote this document or if the Prime Minister authorised this document. There's an argument that the Prime Minister could be in contempt of the Senate. Privileges resolution No. 6 says that a person should not 'improperly interfere with the free exercise by the Senate or a committee of its authority'. It further talks about offences by a witness:

A witness before the Senate or a committee shall not:

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(b) without reasonable excuse, refuse to answer any relevant question put to the witness when required to do so; or

(c) give any evidence which the witness knows to be false or misleading in a material particular, or which the witness does not believe on reasonable grounds to be true or substantially true in every material particular.

I think you can mount an argument that this document is instructing departmental officials to breach those rules and is therefore instructing departmental officials to be in contempt of the Senate. This is a cheat sheet on how to mislead senators in estimates, and it's the Prime Minister showing absolute disregard for the process of open democracy. He is trashing his own so-called promise of more accountability and transparency. I reiterate that the Prime Minister should retract this document today and start delivering on their promise of a more accountable and transparent government, because this is a betrayal by the Labor government of their promises for a better government. At this point they are just Scott Morrison in a different coloured tie.