DOCUMENTS

Senator McGRATH (Queensland) (09:32): In speaking to this motion for attendance by the minister, I want to remind the chamber that this is actually about two issues, both equally important, and they are the issues of transparency and accountability. It is the role of this chamber to be the house of review, through the committee process, through how the chamber is elected with senators from each state.

It is not designed to be a partisan rubberstamp for decisions of the executive. It is the role of this chamber to hold the executive to account, and part of that role is through a mechanism called the order of the production of documents. That allows this chamber, on behalf of Australians—the taxpayers and the voters but all Australians—to actually find out what the government is up to.

The opposition and the crossbench use this on regular occasions, and the government doesn't like it. The government doesn't like it when this Senate passes orders for the production of documents. My considered position I put to the government and to those who wish the veil of secrecy to be held over government is that, if you have nothing to hide, you should not be concerned or worried about the release of documents.

They often go to how the policies of the government of the time—at this point, it's the Labor Party—are being enacted in practice. If the governing party, the Labor Party, are so proud of the policies put into practice through the government, then they should not be worried about releasing the relevant documents concerning that policy, which is why we in the opposition—I don't want to speak for the crossbench—are bemused at best as to why the Labor Party are kicking up such a stink about releasing documents that have been ordered through the processes of the Senate.

An order for the production of documents isn't 'we would like you to do this'. It is an order of this elected chamber to the executive. What we are seeing increasingly with this Labor government is that they are refusing to submit to the will of the people and submit to the will of this chamber.

I remind this chamber that the Prime Minister, before the 2022 election, said he would lead 'the most transparent and accountable government ever'. It was one of those core election promises. He went around the country saying how transparent and accountable he would be as prime minister.

But, ironically, Prime Minister Albanese is leading the least transparent and least accountable government since Federation, and that has been shown this week with the number of orders for the production of documents that have passed through the Senate chamber that have not been complied with by the Labor government and that have subsequently resulted in the responsible minister being forced to attend this chamber to give an account as to why the Labor government are refusing to comply with the order.

Yesterday we saw very ugly scenes in this chamber, where Labor Party senators, with wilful intent, attacked opposition senators rather than giving a factual account as to why those particular documents had not been provided. The particular OPD that Senator Bragg has put through this chamber goes back to June of this year. It was four months ago that this order was put in; it wasn't put in last week.

The government have had four months in which to comply with this order for the production of documents. It's not to do with some obscure policy or some particularly detailed and complex policy. It is to do with a key policy of the Labor Party concerning housing, and housing is an important issue in Australia.

What we're seeing from this government, sadly, is a refusal to admit that they have made a mistake and a refusal to admit that their policies are actually hurting Australians. Question agreed to.