James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

I'm going to start with the responses from Senator Wong to Senator Birmingham's question about estimates and accountability and transparency. It is clear with this Labor government that it's not what they do, but it's what they say. They're not being transparent, they're not being accountable, but they're saying they are. Indeed, before the election the Prime Minister said that the Australian people deserve transparency and accountability, but what we found out in the last 16 hours is that this Labor government are reducing estimates—the time for non-government senators to ask questions of the government as to how public moneys are expended. We have found out, under Labor's proposals for the sitting schedule in the coming year, that they've reduced the estimates schedule by 25 per cent. This has overturned decades of convention that there are at least four weeks of estimates each year—estimates where non-government senators, regardless of who is in power, Labor or the coalition, can ask questions of the government. What we find with this Labor government, who promised transparency and accountability, is that they're doing everything but that. Indeed, transparency and accountability have just popped outside of this building. They've called a cab or an Uber and they're heading to the airport and getting the heck out of Canberra.

That is what we're seeing under this Labor government. We're seeing a Labor government who, for example, with the sitting schedule, promised family-friendly hours. Now, I'm happy to sit here each night until midnight. My family is not here in Canberra. For many senators here—most senators—their families are not here in Canberra. Labor promised family-friendly hours. But, under the sitting schedule, they've made it harder for senators from states like WA, where my colleague Senator O'Sullivan comes from, to actually get home and see their families on weekends. Labor have extended the sitting hours. They continue to extend the sitting hours. On this side of the chamber we don't have a problem with trying to assist the government in achieving its legislative program, but we do have a problem with the hypocrisy of a Labor Party who come into this chamber and talk about transparency and accountability yet do anything but be transparent and accountable.

I wonder, is this reluctance to hold four weeks of estimates in calendar year 2023 something to do with secrets, something to do with, I don't know, dodgy deals? Is there something that the Labor government don't want us to ask questions about? Looking at the estimates over the last couple of weeks, we've found out, for example, through looking at the budget papers and through asking questions of officials at the table, that at that jobsfest, that talkfest that was masquerading as a jobsfest, this Labor government spent $7,000 on a band. Now, fair play to the band. We all love live music—brilliant. But the government spent $7,000 on a band for an official function. Is that a good use of taxpayer money? Taxpayers paid for this. We found that out through the estimates process.

Is it because the government does not wish us to prosecute and ask questions about energy policy in Australia?—remembering that this Labor government, this Labor Prime Minister, promised 97 times before the election that they will reduce power bills by $275. Yet in their budget papers we were able to find out that actually power bills are going to go up by 56 per cent. So, what this government is doing is deliberately limiting the ability of non-government senators to ask questions of ministers as to policies and to ask questions of officials as to how public money is being expended.

This is about accountability. It is about standing up for the rights of taxpayers who fund the government of Australia and asking on behalf of taxpayers where that money is being spent and whether that money is being spent appropriately. We find out from this Labor Party that they are scared of transparency and accountability. No matter the words that come out of them, they all want to go and hide under the doona because they do not like being held to account.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There has been a change of government, and this is the government that is letting the light in. And the hypocrisy of those who've come in here with this faux outrage about having one week less to review an event that's not occurring is simply a complete misrepresentation of what's going on. To be clear, MYEFO, the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook that is provided to the Australian people—we would be familiar with that—normally happens around Christmas time. And when we return after the Christmas break, the MYEFO document, with all that financial information, is then generally subject to review by the process of estimates. That is how it works.

But we've had an election this year, people. The former government seems to have missed that: there was an election. And because their figures were so lacking in transparency, because they were so dodgy and so unclear—like their own leader, who has been censured on this very day in the other chamber, censured in this very parliament today—they tried to construct a false narrative here about what is going on. The reality is that we are all for transparency, unlike the government-that-was under Mr Morrison.

I think Senator Birmingham should be a bit careful with these sorts of questions. He should know something about this lack of accountability, about the government that he helped to lead. He was the minister representing that Prime Minister, Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Did he stand up to him? Did he stand up then? But as recently as a few months ago, Senator Birmingham was part of the cover-up that we're now seeing revealed since the change of government. There's the transparency where we can finally see a Prime Minister who was so hellbent on keeping everything secret that he didn't even tell his own cabinet ministers that he had taken over five of their jobs! Five of their jobs he had taken over!

They want to ask questions about a document that does not exist, because we just had a budget in October. How many questions did they actually leave unanswered before they left us? It wasn't just parliamentary questions on notice that were left unanswered; as he left, the Prime Minister had a total of 128 unanswered parliamentary questions on notice. There were 128 that he hadn't answered! And parliamentary questions on notice were just one part of this. The Prime Minister's own department had a total of 391 unanswered questions from Senate estimates—391! So when this group of members of the now opposition come in here and say: 'We need transparency! We need accountability!' we agree. And so do the Australian people. It's why they turfed you lot out and brought us in. They were sick of the deception, they were sick of the lies and they were sick of the cover-ups. Those cover-ups have become clear since we've come into government, had a look at the books and put out a proper budget in October to let the Australian people know what's really going on with the finances of this country.

But that's not the only thing they covered up. We tried so hard in this place, in this Senate, to hold that government to account. I have notes from a matter of public importance speech that I gave last year. The topic of that debate was the Prime Minister's inability to accept responsibility for any of the failures and policy stuff-ups that had littered his three years in office. The Prime Minister's answer to the car park rorts was, 'The minister made no decision.' His answer to the sports rorts was that it was misleading parliament. His answer about an alleged rape in the ministerial wing was that he had no idea about it. His answer to the bushfires which burnt homes in my home state was, 'I don't hold a hose.'

His own members were asking him about what was going on with the government and he hid from them that he had taken over five of their jobs. This is an opposition that has not a leg to stand on when coming in and asking questions of this transparent government, which is telling the truth to the Australian people and isn't hiding behind a Prime Minister who is such a deceiver that he can't even tell his own people what he's doing. The truth has to be told; Senate estimates should follow a traditional procedure and should be available to shadow ministers on the other side to ask questions—no doubt. But this is a stunt, because MYEFO doesn't exist and there is really no need for the review of a document that will not exist— (Time expired)

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Birmingham, please. Senator Van is anxious to begin his contribution.