Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Home Ownership) Share this | Hansard source

There Treasurer presented a significant mistruth in relation to this PII claim. The Information Commissioner said there was no commercial information and that it should be released. Thank God for the Information Commissioner, because, without them, we wouldn't have this information in the public domain.

Yesterday, Senator Chisholm said that Cbus had objected to the release of these documents and that that's why the government didn't release them. But it's not up to Cbus to run the government. The government should be run by the people who have been elected by the Australian people, and it was for the Treasurer to make the judgement, in accordance with Senator Gallagher, that these matters were not commercial in confidence, and they should have been provided in accordance with the order made by the Senate.

There was no commercial-in-confidence information. This information was all about a secret lobbying attempt so that Cbus could exempt itself from disclosing fees to members. They didn't want to show their members that they were incurring stamp duty costs when they were investing in property, because they are so desperate to become the corporate landlords of Australia. They want to own the Australian dream, and the Labor government have sought to help them cover up this secret lobbying with a cloak of commercial in confidence which is not there.

That is why it is very important that we get to the bottom of this, and that's why I again thank the crossbench for helping us bring on this motion. As former senator Patrick said in a piece on the weekend:

How was it that Mr Bragg, as a private citizen, can get documents under FOI that Senator Bragg could not using the powers of the Senate?

Patrick goes on to say:

Ultimately, Chalmers' Senate betrayal is a betrayal of the Australian public—who are the real source of the Senate's power and purpose.

Now, I think that is, really, the summary here. We are here to do the work of the public. We are here to expose wrongdoing and get to the bottom of things, and we're being obstructed by a government that promised integrity and transparency. This was a false public interest immunity claim. It had nothing to do with commercial-in-confidence information. It was all about secret lobbying which the Treasurer is ashamed of. (Time expired)