DOCUMENTS

Senator BRAGG (New South Wales) (15:15): I move: That the Senate take note of the explanation concerning the response to the order relating to Housing Australia. The minister's explanation reveals two major problems this nation has: (1) it has a government which is engaging in maladministration when it comes to its housing programs, and (2) it has a government which is committed deeply to secrecy.

This explanation is more evidence that the government will not provide the basic information that the Senate has requested through the orders for the production of documents in relation to the massive expenditure of taxpayer funds. But we should not be surprised, because this government, according to the Centre for Public Integrity, has the worst record on transparency and secrecy since the Keating government by virtue of metering its compliance with orders of the Senate and by virtue of measuring its compliance with freedom-of-information requests.

This week, we see the government wants to gut the freedom-of-information laws to ensure that Australians cannot get basic information about the functioning of the government that they pay for. Malcolm Fraser was very clear when he introduced these laws that the government performs better if Australians are informed about the activities of the government. Basic transparency and accountability are not much to ask for when you are committing $10 billion of taxpayer funds which, over the last two years of operation, have built only a few houses.

These orders for the production of documents—which go back to February this year—are about providing the information about the expenditure of taxpayer funds through round 1 of the Housing Australia Future Fund. Back in February we requested the information. In July we received a slew of documents—2,000 pages, many of which are blacked out.

There are more blacked-out pages than there are pages with information. The information germane to the taxpayer is who is getting the money? How much money are they receiving?

I take the minister's explanation when he gives two principal points. He says, 'We can't tell you where the houses are,' and the problem with that is that the people who signed up to get access to public funds already said in their contracts that they were okay with the government disclosing the location. Do you know why?

Every time you see Minister O'Neil talking about housing, she's on one of the sites, so the idea this has to be kept secret is ridiculous. It is offensive. Do you think we are all stupid?

Senator Grogan: Maybe. Senator BRAGG: I take the interjection—maybe we are, because the people who have signed these contracts to get taxpayer funds for public housing or social and affordable housing have already said that they're okay with the locations being known. This is not protecting people.

Pretty soon, you will see ministers tripping over television cords on all these sites. Secondly, the minister's justification for why the government won't say how much money has gone to these providers is unbelievable to me. The government are going to dish out taxpayer funds to private organisations and won't say how much they are getting in availability payments.

I'm afraid that is not how our system works. If the government are spending taxpayer funds, they need to say how much money is going to these organisations. I'm afraid that we don't live in a country where these things are allowed to be secret.

Everyone will need to find out. I'll say it again. The country has two massive problems in this space.

There is maladministration in the program's delivery. It's been going for two years. It's only built a handful of houses.

Clearly, the tender processes have been a disaster. Secondly, the secrecy is intolerable. Maybe this is all part of the plan, when you're proposing to never respond properly to Senate orders and every FOI is covered up in black ink—and now you're proposing to destroy the FOI Act.

Maybe that's all okay, but it's not good enough for the Australian people. They expect their government to be honest and transparent. We will never let up.

I call on the crossbench to continue to hold the government to account. They think that they have unfettered power, but that is totally unreasonable in a democracy like this, which has the Senate— (Time expired)