DOCUMENTS

Senator DEAN SMITH (Western Australia) (18:16): I rise to take note of the OPD in regard to the incoming government brief from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. I move: That the Senate take note of the documents. The Senate has stood its ground.

The coalition has exposed the government for its very, very shallow commitment to transparency. In fact, it has even demonstrated that the government's commitment to transparency is a sham. More importantly, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Mr Chris Bowen, has been forced by the orders of this Senate to finally release volume 1 of the incoming government brief from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

The incoming government brief is the advice that the government gets from departments. This is the document. What is remarkable, or perhaps not remarkable, is that 97 per cent of the pages of this advice—volume 1 of the incoming government brief—are, in fact, redacted.

Rather than meeting the challenge of being transparent, this government has confirmed more than ever, stronger than ever, that there is something hidden in these documents that it does not want Australians to see. Ninety-seven per cent of the pages of the advice in this document have been partly redacted. Remember, this is a document that the minister and the department did not want released.

It's a document that they claimed could be excluded from the orders of production process of this Senate because they claimed a freedom-of-information justification. The Clerk said very clearly in correspondence to me that they were wrong. Sixty-three pages of this 65-page document, or 97 per cent, are redacted in some form.

Twenty-eight pages, or 43 per cent, are completely redacted. In one case, 24 pages in a row are blacked out, concealing not just from the parliament but from the public the real advice given to the new government from the department of climate change and energy. Let's just compare what other departments have done when meeting their requirements to provide an incoming government brief and what they have done when they have been asked to meet orders of the Senate.

You would have thought that the Department of Home Affairs is dealing with much more sensitive issues than the department of climate change and energy. They released 76 per cent of their brief. The Department of Home Affairs released 76 per cent of their brief, redacting only matters that were genuinely pertaining to national security or cabinet in confidence.

How can that be? The Department of Home Affairs, responsible for the security of this country, redacts just 76 per cent, and the climate change department is redacting considerably more. Not one single page of the Department of Home Affairs's incoming brief was redacted.

Sixty-three pages of this 65-page document, or 97 per cent, were redacted in some form. Twenty-eight pages, 43 per cent, are completely redacted. In one case, 24 pages in a row are blacked out.

The question is: what is it that the Minister for Climate Change and Energy is hiding in this incoming government brief? Pages under a section headed 'Delivering your agenda' and with subheadings 'Locking in and accelerating emissions reductions' and 'Navigating global climate change action and delivering COP31' have been entirely blacked out. One thing stands out more than anything else in this heavily redacted incoming government brief, and that is that the department's advice to Minister Bowen tips power prices to rise.

It says, on page 8, that 'energy prices remain top concern for households after food and groceries', and it says, in black and white: … the draft Default Market Offer (DMO) points to a further significant increase in retail electricity prices next financial year. If that's what they didn't redact, imagine what is in the redacted parts of this incoming government brief.

This is another demonstration of the powers of the Australian Senate; a powerful demonstration that the government's commitment to transparency is a sham; and a demonstration that Minister Bowen, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, wants to hide from the parliament and hide from public scrutiny the full details of what is in this incoming government brief.

We know the Albanese government is failing on climate change and energy policy. The advice itself confirms that Australians are struggling with the cost of electricity under Labor and that this is only going to get worse, but, even by the government's standards, trying to withhold this information and then releasing it so heavily redacted is a new low. It's part of a wider, increasingly obvious lack of transparency from this Labor government that is totally at odds with the false claims of accountability and openness to both parliament and the Australian people.

It is worrying that Minister Bowen and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water appear to have followed incorrect procedure. Despite the fact that the OPD procedures of this Senate are well understood in this chamber and across the government, the department of climate change and energy chose a justification that completely sits outside of the OPD process—a freedom-of-information justification—which was examined during the Senate estimates process and which the Clerk said was wrong.

The coalition has utilised the powers and resources of this Senate chamber to get to this point and will continue to explore further options to make sure that the real advice, the real evaluation of the government's performance on emissions and energy issues, is there for this chamber and for the Australian parliament to see in full transparency. Question agreed to.