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

Once again, we find ourselves in the uncomfortable and very rare position where all the non-government senators have agreed that the conduct of the government is deeply underwhelming. We saw a leaked version of this document, which is effectively a cheat sheet on how to not answer senators' questions in Senate estimates—a core part of our democracy—and, after pressure from this chamber, the government, five seconds before that, coughed up the full document and then wanted to leave it at that. They thought that was enough, that the document was tabled. The reason we are here today again is we need to know who wrote that document. We want to know how the Prime Minister ticked off on that document, and we want to know who had been sent a copy of that document.

I'm grateful the minister representing today has answered some of those questions. She said the Prime Minister hadn't seen it or reviewed it. We will be asking in estimates how that's possible—for a document emanating from the Prime Minister's Office to somehow not have come to the attention of the Prime Minister or have his imprimatur on it. That'll be a question for estimates. We now know it was distributed to agencies and through ministerial offices. We still don't know who authored it. I would like to understand the process of how a Prime Minister's Office document doesn't have the imprimatur of the Prime Minister; that doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm missing something; I've never been the Prime Minister before and I never will be, but I'd like to understand the level of involvement of the Prime Minister in this document.

We will be pursuing this in estimates. I thank the minister for the invitation to do so; we will certainly be doing that. This is a manual on how to not answer questions, and it's deeply disappointing because we were promised a more accountable and more transparent government. That's what people voted for, and that's why it's deeply shocking when a manual like this indicates that, in fact, that's not at all the approach that this administration is taking to important issues like transparency in Senate estimates.

As I called for multiple times yesterday in my contribution, the Prime Minister needs to retract this document. This is not an appropriate level of guidance. This is not what a government that wanted to be better on transparency and accountability should be telling their officers to do. The Prime Minister must retract this document and issue a fresh edict that says, 'Answer the question to the best of your ability in the most succinct and efficient way.' I don't understand where the chain of communication is failing here. The Prime Minister should have voluntarily done that already. Perhaps it will take further questioning in estimates and further consideration of this chamber for the Prime Minister to do that. It's deeply embarrassing yet again that it has to be this chamber that requires this government to conduct itself better. You should have coughed up this document in the first place. It shouldn't have taken a joint motion of all of the non-government senators to force you to disclose it. It shouldn't now be taking another move by all of the non-government senators to disclose who drafted it and where it was sent. We still don't know who actually drafted it. It shouldn't take the rest of us to call on the Prime Minister to make good on his promise to be more accountable and more transparent.

The Prime Minister must retract this document. There are no two ways about it. The reason for that is that the author of this document could be in contempt of the Senate. Privileges resolution No. 6 is very clear about not interfering with the free exercise by the Senate or a committee of its authority. It's also very clear about an offence by a witness to not answer a relevant question or to give evidence that's false or misleading in any material particular or not substantially true in every material particular. We have those rules for a reason. It is deeply inappropriate for a document from the Prime Minister's office to essentially be instructing officials to ignore those rules and to do everything possible to avoid answering questions. That is not a government of accountability and transparency. You're not doing what you said on the tin. People didn't want to buy that tin, and they're not going to want to buy that tin next time if you don't fix this now. For the last time, we are urging the Prime Minister, through his representative in the chamber here today, to retract this document, have some ethics and stop showing contempt for the proper processes that you said you'd stand up for.