Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In respect of the budget estimates report of the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I will speak on the report very briefly, particularly in relation to cross-portfolio Indigenous estimates, which occur as a part of the Finance and Administration Legislation Committee's work, at the tail end of the finance and administration estimates. The coalition has taken the slightly unusual step of filing additional comments to the committee's report. We support the broader report of the committee but, in respect of the time that's allocated by the Senate for consideration of Indigenous cross-portfolio matters, what's become apparent in conducting those hearings over the period of this parliament is that we clearly don't have sufficient time to adequately support conduct of estimates in relation to those matters. This government has said that Indigenous matters are a major focus for it. It has gone from promising almost everything to Indigenous Australians to delivering effectively no change, and we genuinely do need to do justice to reviewing the expenditure of government in relation to cross-portfolio Indigenous matters. We've had to conduct spillovers, but in particular we've had to truncate our efforts in interrogating the matters that relate to cross-portfolio Indigenous matters

So, in that sense, what the coalition has recommended in its additional comments to the report is that additional time be allocated for the consideration of cross-portfolio Indigenous matters at both additional and supplementary estimates and also budget estimates so that we can actually do justice to this very important element of government policy and do what we can collectively, as a parliament and as a chamber, towards improving the outcomes that we all seek for Indigenous Australians.

So the recommendation from the coalition senators in the report calls for the equivalent of two 9 am to 5 pm days for additional estimates and supplementary estimates hearings and, for budget estimates, for two full estimates days—that is, 9 am to 11 pm—so we can actually do what we should be doing: properly scrutinising the expenditure and supporting the reform and improvement of the circumstances of Indigenous Australians. This is something that coalition senators have been considering for a period of time. There have been conversations, I can say, within the committee about the time that we've allocated. But what we've done at this point in time is to take the initiative to make the recommendation, and I trust that the Senate will consider that recommendation seriously so that we can appropriately deal with the issues that we want to deal with—that we need to deal with—to improve circumstances for Indigenous Australians in Australia. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.