DOCUMENTS

Senator RUSTON (South Australia—Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (10:12): I too stand to speak on the sad fact that this government lacks transparency. This is just another classic example of the government trying to hide what are clearly documents in the public interest about a scheme that is so important to so many Australians. I heard the contribution of the new Minister for the NDIS, Senator McAllister, and I can only hope, despite the words that she just spoke, that she is going to be more transparent than those that have gone before her.

The NDIS is important, as the minister outlined, and it is not something that is owned entirely by the Labor Party. The NDIS has been supported across all areas of this chamber because we clearly all believe that it is very important that we support those people that live with permanent and stabilised disability to have the best opportunities they can. But that is not the point of this particular attendance by the minister.

The point of the attendance of the minister is based entirely on transparency. For months and months and months we've been coming into this place and hearing a whole heap of waffle around why this government will not release documents in relation to the financial sustainability framework for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Nothing could be more important than the financial sustainability of this scheme, because it goes to the very essence of what Senator Steele-John said, and that is supporting Australians who live with disability.

The government can say all they like about the scheme, but the reality is that they are not being transparent, and, in the process of not being transparent, they are denying Australians the opportunity to look under the hood and see what's going on with this—to be quite frank—very expensive scheme that we want to make sure is delivering the in best interests for those Australians that it was designed to support.

This is just another example of the lack of transparency of this government. In fact, the Centre for Public Integrity recently called out the alarming rise in the lack of transparency delivered by the Albanese government as deeply troubling. Well, it is deeply troubling, because the purpose of this parliament and the purpose of this Senate is to make sure that we understand what's actually going on behind what the government is doing.

They, as government, do not have the right to be able to cover everything up and not allow Australians to see what they are doing. So these motions and these attendances, like the one we have today, are really important to make sure that we have a system by which the government is required to come into this chamber and answer the Australian people about what it is doing with the money that it collects from Australians through their taxes.

The question it begs in all of this is: what is the government hiding with its refusal to come in here and tell us and to provide documents that are absolutely fundamental to the administration of a very important scheme under the government? It goes to the fact that this is a government that's prepared to lie and then is prepared to take actions to cover up those lies, because quite often, if information were made available, you would see that much of what the government is saying is actually untrue.

We saw that with the 'Mediscare' campaign that they ran in the election campaign, only to find out that the department itself had told the government that their claim that the only thing you'd need when going to see the doctor was your Medicare card was untrue. Their department itself said that a significant number of practices would still require people to pay out-of-pocket costs, which we are seeing right now.

We also saw the same thing with taxation and the promises they took to the election. We now find Treasury itself has been working up more opportunities to tax Australians more. Once again: if you don't have transparency, the government gets away with things that it would not be able to get away with if it were actually being honest with the Australian public about what it's doing.

This particular attendance by the minister goes exactly to that point. The government needs to be transparent so that we know what it's doing. It would also be in your own best interests, because it would be very difficult to call you a liar if you actually provided the information so that you could defend yourself and what you're saying.

The fact that you keep hiding things and then are found out for lying, I think, is a very sad indictment of the government. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! Minister Chisholm?

Senator Chisholm: A point of order: I ask that Senator Ruston withdraw. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I don't think it's unparliamentary. However, for the smooth operation of the chamber, I will ask you to withdraw, Senator Ruston.

Senator RUSTON: At your request, Deputy President, I will withdraw. It does highlight the fact that this government is quite happy to hide things that end up causing incredible distress and uncertainty for some of the most vulnerable people in our community. As Senator Steele-John pointed out, with some of the things the government has been doing—the lack of transparency, the lack of consultation—all it does is to say to Australians who live with disability, 'This government doesn't care about you; as a government, we're happy to leave you in a state of permanent uncertainty,' which only creates distress.

You should be ashamed. You should come clean with those documents so Australians can see what you're up to.