MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Senator PAYMAN (Western Australia—Australia's Voice Whip) (17:09): When a government hides from scrutiny, every part of Australian life suffers, and so do the policy outcomes. In this parliament alone, the Senate has issued 93 orders for the production of documents. Of those, just 16 have been complied with; that's a 17 per cent compliance rate.

I haven't been a student for a few years, but when I was at school 17 per cent was a fail—a big fail. Instead of fixing this culture of secrecy, the government is proposing so-called reforms to the freedom-of-information system which threaten to weaken the already frail transparency framework. They've condemned robodebt, yet, with this bill, they're paving the way for the next one.

It might not feel like it, but less transparency makes everything worse. If we want better outcomes, we need to see more of what our government is doing.