DOCUMENTS

Senator McGRATH (Queensland) (09:08): The Labor Party, and this minister in particular, have a three-monkeys approach to transparency and accountability, which is to see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing. This is a prime minister who promised to lead the most accountable and most transparent government since Federation yet leads the least transparent and least accountable government since Federation.

I would like to commend Senator Payman for the work that she's been doing in relation to this matter. Senator Payman, I want pay tribute to your dissection of the minister's response there. What we heard from the minister was a word salad.

It was like someone in the ministerial office had played Scrabble with a bunch of words and said, 'We'll put this up, and this'll keep the Senate quiet.' Well, it's not going to keep the Senate quiet. Minister after minister, following the lead of the Prime Minister, are using accountability measures not to release information but using FOI, questions on notice and OPDs to not release the information that has been requested by the Senate or by journalists who are requesting information through the FOI or RTI processes.

This is wrong, because what it comes to, ultimately, is the use of taxpayers' money. This minister went to New York. She paid $20,000 for business class flights just for herself.

Don't forget, everybody, this was in the midst of the Optus triple zero crisis. She left the crisis behind—and she has spent the last 18 months or so doing everything possible to ensure that she, the minister, and her department do not comply with the orders of this Senate and do not comply fully with requests for information. This is a failure of accountability, a failure of transparency, and a massive failure of the use of taxpayers' money.

But we should not be surprised, because this is the minister who, in a puerile and juvenile way, was using Ooshies to explain the housing crisis when the housing crisis in this country has been caused by the economic policies of the government that she's a member of. Then the minister does another social media post this week where she wonders why people don't have trust in politicians.

Well, Minister, go and get a mirror. Get it from IKEA or Fantastic Furniture, or go down to BIG W. Get a mirror and have a look at yourself.

The No. 1 reason Australians do not have trust in the political system or in politicians is actually you and the government that you are a member of. This is a government that promised to cut power bills. This is a government that promised not to make changes to the taxation system.

Yet this is a government that has increased power bills, and this is a government that has increased taxes on Australians. Promise after promise is broken, and when this Senate—whether the opposition or crossbenchers such as Senator Payman—use legitimate Senate processes to ensure that the executive is held to account, the Labor Party, the Labor Prime Minister and the Labor cabinet ministers refuse to play ball.

It is almost as though the Labor Party see the government of Australia as their personal plaything when it comes to spending money and when it comes to making decisions. This Senate is the house of review. It is this Senate that is set up to hold the executive to account.

The government does not have a majority in this chamber, and the crossbenchers and the opposition will work together to ensure that, regardless of the issue at hand, appropriate accountability and transparency measures are properly being used so that the taxpayers of Australia and the voters of Australia know that this government does what it said it would do rather than hide behind word salads.

Senator Payman, the opposition will continue to support you in your fight to ensure that the appropriate information is released, and we're making sure that this minister is held to account. Question agreed to.