DOCUMENTS

Senator McGRATH (Queensland) (11:18): Let's just talk about what this actually is about. This is about the transparency and accountability of a government that refuses to comply with orders of the Senate. This is the Labor Party doing the middle finger to the Senate.

This is the Labor Party saying, to use a colloquial phrase, 'Up your bum' to the Senate in relation to the Senate's requirement that documents be provided. And this is a disgrace. It is a slur on the Australian people, who voted for this chamber, as the house of review, to hold the executive to account.

It's particularly interesting that the Labor Party is so touchy about this, because we all know that the Prime Minister has a house 200 metres from this golf club. The Prime Minister has selective amnesia. He's clearly forgotten about the house he owns, because he owns so many, and he's forgotten about his membership of the golf club, a golf club that he himself ensured was given millions of dollars.

He failed to declare two things. One was his membership of the golf club, a membership that he's had for a number of years, and his involvement with the golf club, which he's had for a number of years. This golf club has held fundraisers for him.

It's held functions for him. But he forgot all about that because he's got selective amnesia. He also forgot to mention, when it comes to the $6 million for this golf club, the proximity of a residential holding in his name.

There's a clear conflict of interest in two regards. I'll quote from the Code of conduct for ministers. It says: The Code of Conduct for Ministers sets out, in clear terms, the expectations the Albanese Government has of all its ministers.

But apparently this code of conduct does not apply to the Prime Minister. I read from 3.2: Ministers are personally responsible for the management and declaration of their private interests, the identification and declaration of any current or potential conflicts of interest … Item 3.3 says: Ministers must declare and register their personal interests … A $6 million grant has gone to a golf club, and the Prime Minister is the ultimate decision-maker here.

He's gone around and said, 'I'm not the decision-maker,' but we've got Catherine King saying, 'I'm not the decision-maker,' and we've got the minister for regional development saying, 'I am not the decision-maker.' So who actually is the decision-maker? How does $6 million miraculously end up in the savings account of the Marrickville golf club? It's because the Prime Minister is the one who made the decision for this money—$6 million, by the way, of taxpayers' money—to go to a golf club that apparently he's never seen and didn't know anything about, even though it's 200 metres from a house that he owns in the suburb of Marrickville.

Professor Anne Twomey is quite correct. This is grey corruption, and it goes to the heart of how the Labor Party operates. They treat taxpayers' money as their own money.

It's some sort of credit card. They can go all around the world. We only have to talk about Anika Wells, the 'minister for frequent flyer points', in terms of her approach to the treatment of taxpayers' money.

She sees how the Prime Minister operates. He thinks it's well and good to give $6 million to his local golf club, which he's never seen and which is only 200 metres from a house that he had apparently forgotten he owned. It's a clear conflict of interest, and this government says it doesn't really matter.

This Senate, quite correctly, passed an order for the production of documents asking for certain documents. If the government don't have anything to hide, they should release the documents. If everything is rosy, good and in compliance with the law, the Labor Party should just release the documents, because they've got nothing to hide.

But they clearly do have something to hide. Otherwise, why would they be objecting to the release of these documents? They know these documents are a paper trail from the Prime Minister to the golf club and in reverse in relation to the laundering of $6 million of taxpayers' money to a golf club in the Prime Minister's own electorate without taking into account due process and due accountability.

It's a rip-off of the Australian taxpayers, and the Australian Labor Party should be ashamed of themselves. (Time expired)