DOCUMENTS

Senator CASH (Western Australia—Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (12:07): I move: That the Senate take note of the Minister's explanation. And what an explanation it was! It doesn't matter what this minister says.

He can huff and puff all he likes. He can say, 'Transparency is now apparently partisan politics.' That's right, Australia. The opposition came here on your behalf, asking for modelling in relation to changes that this government has made, and, apparently, our asking for transparency is 'partisan politics'.

This is coming from a government that went to the 2022 election saying that, if they were elected, Australians—guess what?—would see transparency like no other. Guess what? Sadly, Australians are seeing transparency like no other.

In other words, they are not seeing any transparency coming out of this government. Produce the documents. How hard is it for this minister to produce documents?

I have to say, for those of you who are only tuning in to this debate for the first time, you would think, based on that performance by the minister, that this was the first time that the Senate had actually voted to compel the minister to produce the documents that the Senate had asked for. Well, you'd be wrong, because—guess what?—the Senate actually made this order asking the minister to produce documents over 12 months ago, on 24 July 2025.

All we are asking for on behalf of the Australian people is the Treasury advice relating to Labor's $10 billion housing commitment and its decision to allow first home buyers to purchase with a five per cent deposit. Those first home buyers—the ones purchasing with a five per cent deposit—are also, sadly, the poor people in this country who, on a daily basis, we read, are going into negative equity.

But it doesn't stop there. The minister and this government failed to comply, so what did the Senate do—as we are entitled to? It's not about playing partisan politics.

It is about the Senate doing what the Senate is required to do. We voted to compel the minister to come before the Senate and provide an explanation. Guess what?

That was in November 2025. Do you know what the minister did? He did produce some documents, and there was almost no part of one document that was not redacted.

For those of you who don't know what 'redacted' means, it means you produce a document and then you just cross it all out in black and say: 'There you go. We have complied with the resolution of the Senate.' Again, that is not compliant. What it is is a lack of transparency.

The Senate has since come together and passed further motions to compel this minister to produce the documents: November 2025, March 2026, April 2026, June 2026. Now, because of this government's failure to be transparent and to comply with the will of the Australian Senate, we are in this extraordinary situation where, every Tuesday, this minister has to front the Senate and explain why the Albanese government continues to defy the order of the Senate.

Apparently, though—according to Senator Ayres—it's the opposition who are the problem. This is what he said last week. He called this process—the process of the opposition, on behalf of the Australian people, requiring transparency from the government—'yet another abuse of the Senate's time and the Senate's processes'.

Previously, in another explanation, he called it 'a wilful and puerile use of Senate processes'. That's right, Australia. The Albanese government's ministers seem to think that the opposition asking questions on your behalf, and asking them to produce modelling that is actually affecting you, is a 'wilful and puerile' use of Senate processes.

Senator Ayres has also accused senators of having 'no respect for the institution'. Senator Ayres, you probably want to look in the mirror. He told Senator Bragg last time, 'Sit down, son', and he dismissed those scrutinising the policy—I kid you not—as 'spivs'.

That's the Albanese government minister responding to the right of opposition senators to demand transparency. Guess what, Australia? The next time we sit on a Tuesday, we'll be back here again and we'll hold this government to account.