MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Senator O'SULLIVAN (Western Australia) (16:45): I take great pleasure—or maybe not, actually—in raising this matter of public importance today, because it highlights a very significant problem that we have in this country and that we have here in this parliament, and that is having a government that is unwilling to be compliant with the orders of this chamber.

We have a government that is not willing to be upfront and transparent with the Australian people. This is of course a problem for democracy, but it's also a problem with integrity, because this is a commitment that this government made. In fact, they were in opposition when they made their commitment to being transparent, to leading a government with integrity.

There were slogans on billboards, on placards, in their campaigns and in their social media right before the 2022 election. You didn't see much of a repeat of those slogans and those messages ahead of the most recent election, because, since they've been in government over the last 3½ to four years, they've done nothing but walk away from a transparent and open government.

When this government was elected way back then in 2022, the Prime Minister made a big song and dance about transparency. He said: There have been revelations of an extraordinary and unprecedented trashing of our democracy by the former Morrison Government. The PM claimed that the former government had been 'government by deception, government in secret'.

He went on to say in November 2022 of his government: We're shining sunlight on a shadow government that preferred to operate in darkness, a government that operated in a cult of secrecy and a culture of cover-up, which arrogantly dismissed scrutiny from the parliament and the public as a mere inconvenience. Even more, he promised that his government would 'restore trust and accountability in politics'.

That was said on 1 May 2022, just before the election. Well, if that is the case, let's see how this so-called trustworthy and accountable government has been tracking these last three years. Yesterday, the Centre for Public Integrity released its integrity report card, and it was damning of this government.

It found that the Albanese government had failed in five of the six integrity metrics. The report suggested that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government—and I quote; these are not my words but straight from the report—'faces serious integrity challenges'. Those on that side ought to be hanging their heads in shame, and you, particularly those on the backbench, ought to be expecting more of your ministers, expecting more of your prime minister, because this is unacceptable and it is bringing all of you on the Labor side into disrepute.

The report assessed Labor's actions in six categories: transparency, merit based appointments, limits on undue influence, strengthening the Public Service, support for institutions holding power to account and protections for whistleblowers. These things have not been met. The integrity and transparency measures have not been met.

The report cited increased freedom of information refusals and the resulting proposal of the FOI amendment bill as an alarming step backwards. Rather than stepping forward and bringing in more accountability and more transparency, they're bringing in a bill to wind back the obligations that are on this government to be more accountable, to be upfront. We had a motion just go through this place only 15 minutes ago on requiring the government to deal with an excellent bit of work: the OPD that my good friend the senator from Western Australia, Dean Smith, brought forward to have the climate change and energy report fully transparent instead of having 97 per cent of it redacted, so it will have some full disclosure of what's in that document.

It was an opportunity for this government to step up and be transparent, and what did they do? They all voted—check the Hansard, check the record. The only senators that did not support that action were from the Labor Party.

Every other senator, from the crossbench to the coalition, voted to support that motion. This government is in a serious lot of trouble, and you've got to sort yourselves out, because the Australian people are watching. (Time expired)