Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

The Australian community feel deeply disappointed, frustrated and downright angry with this Labor government. These feelings exist in our community not only because, in this cost-of-living crisis, the government has failed to respond to people's pain in the way that the community rightly expects but also because this Labor government has failed to keep its commitment to the Australian people to act with accountability and transparency. This failure to act with accountability and transparency is on display again today as, once again, this government uses its powers to attempt to keep secret information which disabled people as well as our families and organisations have the right to be able to see, engage with and know about.

The information they continue to keep from the community relates to precisely what they have agreed with the states and territories in relation to how many participants will be thrown off the NDIS because of the cuts they have agreed to and the legislation they have rammed through. It has been almost a year since the Australian Senate began to request the government to provide this information. In making these requests, we have continually made it clear that, in using their powers to keep this information from the community, they are breaching their commitment to transparency and that, in order to rebuild the trust with the disability community created by that breach, they need to set out clearly and precisely, as is required of them by law, the grounds upon which they continue to withhold this information. And they've failed to do it.

What we see here is a tiny window into why people are so frustrated, disappointed and angry. Right here, the government have been given the opportunity to be honest and transparent, and they are instead choosing secrecy and the use of their powers to keep information from the community that the community have a right to know. These types of actions deeply undermine the trust of the community not only in this Labor government but in all governments—a trust which is already justifiably low. The Australian community do not trust people in positions of power in parliament because, decade after decade, decision after decision, people in positions of power have lied. People in positions of power have used the protections of parliament to mislead the Australian community as they have pursued their own personal political goals.

One of the reasons disabled people are particularly angry and particularly disappointed right now is that this Labor government explicitly committed to honesty, transparency and accountability. When they went to the election, Labor said that the Liberal government had been dishonest and untrustworthy and had sought to do the Australian disability community harm, and that a vote for them would mean an end to those practices. Labor delivered the precise opposite. They've cut the NDIS. They've continued the culture of secrecy and dishonesty and to this day refuse to provide disabled people with basic information on what Labor committed behind closed doors when they agreed to cap and cut the NDIS. This is shameful behaviour, and we cannot let it pass.