Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

For those listening: first and foremost, the fundamental role of the Senate is to scrutinise the actions of the government and the actions of this parliament. We have seen a government refusing to accept that this place has a role to play for nearly a year. I commend those who have turned up at this place on a Monday, week after week, and said to the government, 'It is unacceptable for you to hold the Senate in contempt,' because that's exactly what you're doing. The request for information in relation to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Financial Sustainability Framework was asked for nearly a year ago. We're not talking about a small number. The minister has come out and said that there are savings of $60 billion. By anyone's terms—even for this government that spends like drunken sailors—$60 billion is a lot of money. Yet we have yet to see any information to understand what underpins that $60 billion.

Senator Steele-John is absolutely within his right to ask for this place to have greater oversight of what that actually means. It's not only that. The government has twice had its public interest immunity claim rejected by this place. The government is the government of the day, but it is not above the operations of the parliament. The parliament is supreme. Yet this government seems to think that they can run this place as if they are the supreme being in the Australian Constitution. The Australian parliament is. You have contemptuously refused to accept the decision of this Senate on numerous occasions. Week after week, your minister comes into this place and puts up some pathetic response as to why you're refusing to provide this information.

Second to the role of this place in terms of scrutiny, is the obligation of the government. Particularly given it was a government that went to the election professing that transparency was going to be its modus operandi, you have been nothing but opaque. Transparency is not in your DNA. You have acted as a government that believes you don't have to tell anybody anything. This is a classic example of a government refusing to allow sunlight to be shone on the issue that you are trying to shove through this place.

Right now, exactly the same thing is happening in relation to the bill that is before us, which we will see come through this week. It's quite a substantial bill. Obviously, it is really important for the people who rely on the NDIS that we have a sustainable framework going forward so that they are able to be supported. It's not just this generation of Australians who will need the NDIS support; it's for future generations. As a government, we have to make sure that the NDIS is strong and sustainable into the future. Of course, we need to make sure that it's efficient and effective—that we're spending taxpayer money efficiently but also making sure that the people who need the support of the NDIS are able to access it.

We heard a few weeks ago that apparently at the end of June, if we didn't pass the NDIS bill, somehow the world would come to an end. We subsequently find when we get back here, after that period of time, that the bill was actually not in a fit state for it to be passed. Imagine if we'd passed it in June! What we would be doing right now is we would be sitting in here with a whole heap of amendment bills, trying to fix up the mess that hadn't actually been dealt with. Once again, this is typical 101 Labor Albanese government—don't worry about the details; we'll worry about them later. But the one thing I've learned in this place over my time here is that the devil is always in the detail. If you don't attend to the details and you don't make sure that you have done the consultation and got the voices of the people who your legislation, regulation or policy is going to impact in the room to find out what they are saying about it, you will invariably come up with bad policy, which is obviously what happened in this situation.

We had very little consultation. The states and territories didn't turn up to the hearings over the break despite the fact they were asked to do so, and then we find last weekend, all of a sudden, the states and territories aren't so happy with what's being put into this place. What I would say to the government is: be transparent. Use transparency as a mechanism to protect you, because if you don't consult and you're not transparent and you keep being contemptuous to the Senate, this will continue happening, and it must stop. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.